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LEAVES 



FROM 



A LAWYER'S LIFE 



AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 



BY CHARLES COWLEY, 

\y 

JUDGE- ADVOCATE, S. A. B. SQUADRON, 

Author of " History of Lowell," " Famous Divorces of all 
Ages," '* Reminiscences of James C. Ayer," etc., etc. 



LOWELL, MASS. 

Published by Penh allow Printing Company. 

Boston— Lee & Shepard. 

1879. 



vVym^ 









Copyright, 1879. 
By Charles Cowley. 

All rights reserved. 



PREFACE. 

It was my custom, while on the Staff of Admiral 
Dahlgren, to note briefly, from time to time, incidents 
that took place in the Squadron under his command. 
I also carefully noted the events that had taken place 
in that Squadron in Admiral Dupont's time, as they 
were related to me by those who had been eye-wit- 
nesses thereto. Since my return to civil life, it has 
been my custom to examine the successive histories of 
the late War that have appeared, and to note their 
errors and their excellencies, in relation to the South 
Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and in relation to the 
Department of the South, which cooperated with that 
Squadron. 

These pages will show how little attention, com- 
paratively, most of our historians have bestowed upon 
the naval and military forces whose services, suffer- 
ings and sacrifices are here passed in review. 

The mingling of narrative and criticism has its 
advantages as well as its disadvantages. In the pres- 
ent case, I indulge the hope that it may have the effect 
to secure to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron 
its proper place in the history of the War. 



6 PREFACE. 

Without concealing my personal predilection for 
the Cause of the Union, I have sought to treat the 
Lost Cause with entire candor. 

Though I am not prej^ared to say, with General 
William F. Bartlett, that "I am as proud of the men 
who charged so bravely with Pickett's Division on our 
lines at Gettysburg, as I am of the men who so brave- 
ly met and repulsed them there f I am prepared to say 
with him, that, notwithstanding the great and wide- 
spread demoralization which attended it, ''the War 
developed and proved, on both sides, the noblest quali- 
ties of American manhood. It has left us soldiers and 
sailors, once foes, now friends, a memory of hard-fought 
fields, of fearful sacrifices, and of heroic valor." 

Since these pages were in type, the pardon of 
Captain Small, which was foreshadowed on page 54, 
has become an accomplished fact. 

I learned, long ago, that it was Senator Wade, 
and not General Hawley, who made the faux pas at 
the Navy Department, recorded on page 124; but 
failed, by inadvertence, to make the proper correction 
until that page had been printed. 

CHAELES COWLEY. 
Lowell, Mass., 1879. 



"History is false to her trust when she betrays 
the cause of truth, even under the influence of patri- 
otic impulses. It is not true that all the virtue was in 
the Whig camp [during the Eevolution,] or that the 
Tories were a horde of ruffians. They were conserv- 
atives, and their error was in carrying to excess the 
sentiment of loyalty [to their King, just as the error 
of the Confederates lay in carrying to excess the sen- 
timent of loyalty to the State,] which is founded in 
virtue. Their constancy embittered the contest. Their 
cause deserved to fail; but their sufferings are entitled 
to respect. Prejudice has blackened their name ; but 
history will speak of them as they were, with their 
failings and their virtues." — James L. Pettigru. 

"We have, we can have, no barbarian memory of 
wrongs, for which brave men have made the last expi- 
ation to the brave." — Eufus Choate. 

"And the men who, for conscience' sake, fought 
against their government at Gettysburg, ought easily 
to be forgiven by the sons of men who, for conscience' 
sake, fought against their government at Lexington 
and Bunker Hill." — William F. Bartlett. 



LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S LIFE 
AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Blockades — Steam Navies — The Southern Block- 
ade — Our Blockading Squadrons — Compte de Paris — 
The Steamer Iroquois in Chase of the R. E. Lee. 

Blockades are of two kinds — ^military and 
commercial. Military blockades have been 
practiced from the earliest times ; they are 
merely the naval equivalent of sieges by land — 
having for their object the capture of the ports 
invested. Commercial blockades have for their 
principal object the crippling of the enemy by 
stopping his imports, and by isolating him from 
the commercial world. 

So long as commerce was held in contempt, 
as it was in all the great monarchies and re- 
publics of antiquity, there was no occasion for 



lo LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

this form of warfare. It was not until the 
exploits of Vasco de Gama and Cokimbas had 
opened the great routes, as well as the great 
commodities, of modern commerce, that the 
Dutch Provinces of Spain, in their grand strug- 
gle for independence, struck a powerful blow at 
their truculent foe by establishing the first 
commercial blockade — that of the Scheldt. 

The blockade which the United States 
enforced against the ports of the Southern 
Confederacy, was peculiar. It combined the 
objects of a military, with those of a commercial 
blockade : and our Supreme Court recognized it 
as possessing a two-fold character — as valid by 
municipal law, and as sanctioned by international 
law. 

Had the^ Federal leaders thoroughly com- 
prehended the difficulties and complexities and 
the enormous magnitude of the work of block- 
ading the three thousand miles of coast between 
the Potomac and the Rio Grande, when the 
Executive Proclamation of Blockade was issued, 
on the nineteenth of April, 1861, the hand of 
President Lincoln might have been stayed. Of 
all the great blockades in European history, 
the only one that can be compared with the 
Federal blockade of the South, was that which 
was enforced by Great Britain against France 



LIFE A FL OA T A ND A SHORE. 1 1 

and her allies-^ — with one brief intermission 
— from the time of the Revolution to the fall of 
Napoleon. ■•'•' 

The power which chiefly made the Federal 
blockade so effective — the power without which 
indeed the Civil War might have had a different 
termination — was that of steam. 

The power of steam, which enabled the 
Federal government to transfer a vast army, 
in one week, from the seaboard of the Atlantic 
to the valley of the Mississippi, — the power of 
steam, of which the South was substantially 
deprived, when, one by one, its interior lines 
were cut by the Federal forces, and especially 
when Sherman disabled all the railroads from 
Atlanta to the Sea, — this power, and this alone, 
enabled the Federal Navy to post its pickets at 
the mouth of every harbor, river, inlet, sound or 
bay, from Maryland to Mexico ; to arrest all 
operations of commerce, substantially, save 
with two obscure ports ; to recover all the Sea 
Islands from North Edisto to Tybee ; to make 
similar conquests on the coast of North Caro- 
lina ; to run the batteries on the Mississippi ; to 
plant the Star-Spangled Banner over New 

*See Cowley's Blockades of History, in Dahlgren's 
Maritime International Law, pp. 137-142 : also, London 
Quarterly Review^ October, 1876. 



12 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

Orleans ; and to perform a thousand other feats 
which, without a Steam Navy, would scarcely 
have been attempted. 

Innumerable coast-line indentations multi- 
plied a thousand fold the difficulties which the 
vast extent of the Southern seaboard presented 
to the blockading iorces. Every sound, bay, 
inlet, harbor or estuary from Cape Henry to 
Matamoras, offered shelter to inward bound 
craft laden with contraband of war, as well as to 
cotton-carriers outward bound. Terrible tem- 
pests lashed the shores of the Atlantic, and the 
Gulf coast bristled with reefs and rocks. 

The ports of Virginia and North Carolina 
were naturally the first to receive the attention 
of the Federal Navy. On the thirtieth of April, 
notice of the establishment of the blockade at 
those ports was given by Flag Officer Pender- 
grast at Hampton Roads, agreeably to the 
requirements of international law.'-' 

On the eleventh of May, Captain McKean 
appeared off Charleston in the Steam Frigate 
Niagara, and gave notice of the blockade of 
that port, where his movements were watched 
with curious interest. Having boarded half a 

♦Our prize courts released such ships as were seized 
for breach of blockade, without previous notice and 
warning. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 3 

dozen neutral vessels, and ordered them off the 
whole Southern coast, Captain McKean pro- 
ceeded to the Gulf, and arrived off Pensacola 
May 25th. 

On the twenty-sixth of May, Captain Poor 
arrived off Pas a I'Outre in the Steamer Brooklyn, 
and gave notice of the blockade of the Mississippi. 
About the same time. Commander Porter arrived 
in Mobile Bay in the Steamer Powhatan, and 
gave notice of the blockade of Mobile. 

On the twenty-eighth of May, Flag Officer 
Stringham arrived off Charleston in the Steamer 
Minnesota, and thenceforth "the Venice of 
America" and all the ports of South Carolina 
were under close surveillance for four years. 

On the thirty-first of May, the Steamer 
Union began the blockade of Savannah. 

On the seventh of June, P'lag Officer Mer- 
vine reached Key West, and posted his pickets 
along the West coast of Florida and in the Gulf. 

On the second of July, Commander Alden, 
then commanding the steamer South Carolina, 
sent in notice of the blockade of Galveston. 
On the twenty-third of the same month, Flag 
Officer Stringham sent in notice of the blockade 
of Appalachicola. 

Considering the vast length of this line of 
pickets, and the fewness of the ships engaged, 



14 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

the establishment of this blockade seems rather, 
a subject for merriment than for serious con- 
sideration. Mr. Welles found only forty-two 
ships in commission, March 4, 1861 ; and of 
these three were in the Mediterranean, seven 
on the coast of Africa, three in the East Indies, 
and two in Brazil. Only four ships were then 
in Northern ports available for service. 

At first, men laughed at the attempt of 
the Secretary of this ludicrously small Navy 
to blockade a coast measuring 3,,549 statute 
miles, (much of it having a double shore to be 
guarded,) and containing 189 harbors, river 
openings, or indentations ; but they were soon 
taught that, as Lord Macaulay had said, "it is 
not from the laughers alone that the philosophy 
of history is to be learned." 

For, farcical as it seemed at the outset, this 
blockade soon became a matter of the most 
serious moment. Three days after the notifica- 
tion of the blockade by Flag Officer Pendergrast, 
the Federal Navy, small as it was, began to send 
in its prizes. ''The rapid rise in the prices of 
all imported commodities in the insurgent States 
presented," as the Count of Paris most justly 
observed, "the exact measure of the efficiency 
of the blockade. "■••'•■ 

♦History of the Civil War, vol. 2, p. 434. The words 
of the learned and candid Count mitrht lead to the inference 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 5 

When Congress met, in December, the 
Secretary of the Navy reported 136 vessels 
purchased, 34 dismantled vessels repaired and 
put in commission, and 52 vessels in process of 
construction ; making a total of 264 ships, 2,557 
guns, and 22,000 men. 

The vessels engaged in this blockade duty 
were grouped into two squadrons : — the Atlantic 
Blockading Squadron, which consisted of 22 
vessels, carrying 296 guns and 3,300 men, under 
Flag Officer Stringham, and which had for its 
field of operations the whole Atlantic coast from 
Norfolk to Cape Florida ; — and the Gulf Block- 
ading Squadron, which consisted of 21 vessels, 
carrying 282 guns, and 3,500 men, under Flag 
Officer Mervine, and which had for its field the 
entire Gulf coast from Florida to the Rio Grande. 

These squadrons were re-enforced as fast 
as new ships could be built, or old ships 
bought and repaired. More than two hundred 
vessels were built, and more than four hundred 
purchased during the War ; the latter represent- 
ing every style of marine architecture — 

"From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook." 

that oiii-fifst prizes were taken after the disaster of Bull 
Run, July 21, 1861. But the fact is that three prizes were 
captured as early as April. Thenceforward prizes were 
taken almost daily until all the o;reat ports of the South 
were recovered. Lists of all the prizes are appended to 
Mr. Welles' Report for 1865 



i6 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

The number of men in. the naval service 
was rapidly increased from 7,500 to 51,500. 

Referring to the officers and seamen in 
this service, on the page already cited, the 
Count of Paris, in whose luminous narrative 
many of our naval operations are more ade- 
quately recorded, and more generously applaud- 
ed, than in some of the works of our own 
historians, says : — "Their task was the more 
arduous on account of its extreme monotony. 
To the watches and fatigues of every kind which 
the duties of the blockade service involved, 
there were added difficulties of another character. 
It was necessary to instruct the newly-recruited 
crews, to train officers who had been taken from 
the merchant navy, and to ascertain, under the 
worst possible circumstances, the good and the 
bad qualities of merchant vessels too quickly 
converted into men-of-war. In these junctures, 
the Federal Navy displayed a perseverance, a 
devotion, and a knowledge of its profession, 
which reflect as much honor upon it as its more 
brilliant feats of arms." 

To make the blockade more effective, the 
Atlantic Squadron, in September, was divided 
into two. Flag Officer Goldsborough took com- 
mand of the North Atlantic, guarding the coasts 
of Virginia and North Carolina ; while P'lag 



■ LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 17 

Officer Dupont was assigned to the South 
Atlantic, guarding the coasts of South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida. 

The Gulf Squadron was also divided. Flag 
Officer McKean took command of the East 
Gulf, from Cape Canaveral to Pensacola ; while 
Flag Officer Farragut was assigned the com- 
mand of the West Gulf, from Pensacola to 
Matamoras. 

But before these divisions were fully con- 
cluded, Dupont and Farragut severaWy signal 
ized their accession to their respective commands 
by capturing the best of the enemy's positions 
for their own head-quarters, — the one at Port 
Royal, the other at New Orleans. 

Admiral Goldsborough having held the 
command of the North Atlantic about one year, 
was relieved by Admiral Lee, who held that 
command about two years, when Admiral 
Porter succeeded him. The period of Porter's 
command was brief, but brilliant, for it was 
signalized by the bombardment and capture of 
P'ort Fisher, and the recovery of Wilmington 
and all that remained unredeemed of North 
Carolina and Virginia. 

Admiral Dupont, as will more fully appear 
hereafter, retained the South Atlantic Squadron 
till July, 1863, when he was relieved by Admi- 



1 8 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

ral Dahlgren, who hauled down his flag two 
years later at Washington, when the two Atlan- 
tic Squadrons, reduced to a shadow of their 
former greatness, were united under the com- 
mand of Admiral Radford. 

In the East Gulf, the command fell suc- 
cessively on Admirals Lardner, Bailey and 
Stribling. Admiral Farragut retained the com- 
mand of the West Gulf till after the capture of 
Mobile in 1864; and his successor was Admiral 
Thatcher, to whose command the East Gulf was 
added at the close of the war. 

Each of these fleets had its own history, 
(partly recorded, but mostly unrecorded,) its 
own perils and privations, its own battles and 
heroes, its own triumphs and trophies, its own 
griefs and glories. Of each, there remain many 
honorable recollections, which are fast vanish- 
ing into gloom. 

A few years more, and the last of us who 
have survived the perils of this arduous service, 
will have passed away to be no more seen. 

Local tradition may, for a time, preserve, 
with many a fond exaggeration, and with many 
a pardonable mvention of love or glory, the 
memory of some of the lesser lights in our naval 
firmament, and the grander luminaries will 
shine forever : but, for the rest, little will be 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 19 

known of them in the next age, unless it has 
been, or soon is, recorded. 

There were, of course, many experiences 
which were common to all our squadrons — the 
dreary monotonous routine of man-of-war duty— 
and especially the incesant watching, the 
frequent chasing, and occasional capture, of the 
blockade-runners ; though too often, the chase 
ended, like all other pursuits of this mortal life, 
in disappointment and defeat. 

No blockade-runner, probably, ever effected 
her escape after a harder chase than that of the 
Steamer R. E. Lee, which was chased during 
the whole of the sixteenth of August, 1863, by 
the Steamer Iroquois, on leaving Wilmington 
for Nassau, with a cargo of cotton, having 
among her passengers Duke Gwinn and his 
daughter Lucy. The Iroquois was then under 
the command of Captain Case ; the Lee under 
that of the famous blockade-runner. Captain 
John Wilkinson, formerly a Lieutenant in the 
United States Navy, who tells the story as 
follows : — 

"We passed safely through the blockading fleet 
off the New Inlet Bar, receiving no damage from the 
few shots fired at us, and gained an offing from the 
coast of thirty miles by daylight. By this time our 
supply of English coal had been exhausted, and we 
were obliged to commence upon North Carolina coal 



20 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

of very inferior quality, and which smoked terribl3\ 
We commenced on this fuel a little after daylight. 
Very soon afterwards the vigilant look-out at the 
mast-head called out *Sail ho!' and in reply to 'Where 
away?' from the deck, snng out 'Kight astern, sir, and 
in chase.' The morning was very clear. Going to 
the mast-head I could just discern the royal of the 
chaser ; and before I left there, say in half an hour, 
her top-gallant sail showed above the horizon. By 
this time the sun had risen in a cloudless sky. It 
was evident our pursuer would be alongside of us by 
mid-day at the rate we were then going. The first 
orders given were to throw overboard the deck-load 
of cotton and to make more steam. The later proved 
to be more easily given than executed; the chief en- 
gineer reporting that it was impossible to make steam 
with the wretched stuff filled with slate and dirt. 
A moderate breeze from the north and east had been 
blowing ever since daylight and every stitch of 
canvas on board the square-rigged steamer in our 
wake was drawing. We were steering east by south, 
and it was clear that the chaser's advantages could 
only be neutralized either by bringing the 'Lee' 
gradually head to wind or edging away to bring 
the wind aft. The former course would be running 
towards the land, besides incurring the additional 
risk of being intercepted and captured by some of 
the inshore cruisers. I began to edge away there- 
fore, and in two or three hours enjoyed the satisfac- 
tion of seeing our pursuer clew up and furl his 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 2 1 

sails. The breeze was still blowing as fresh as in 
the morning, but we were now running directly away 
from it, and the cruiser was going literall}- as fast as 
the wind, causing the sails to be rather a hindrance 
than a help. But she was still gaining on us. A 
hapjDy inspiration occurred to me when the case seemed 
hopeless. Sending for the chief engineer I said 'Mr. 
S., let us try cotton, saturated with spirits of turpen- 
tine.' There were on board, as -a part of the deck 
load, thirty or forty barrels of 'spirits.' In a very 
few moments, a bale of'cotton was ripped open, a bar- 
rel tapped, and buckets full of the saturated material 
passed down into the fire-room. The result exceeded 
our expectations. The chief engineer, ;m excitable 
little Frenchman from Charleston, very soon made 
his appearance on the bridge, his eyes sparkling with 
triumph, and reported a full head of steam. Curious 
to see the effect upon our speed, T directed him to 
wait a moment until the log was hove. I threw it 
myself; — nine and a half knots. 'Let her go now 
sir?' I said. Five minutes afterwards, I liove the 
log again ; thirteen and a quarter. We now began 
to hold our own, and even to gain a little upon the 
chaser; but she was fearfully near, * * near 
enough at one time for us to see distinctly the white 
curl of foam under her bows, called by that name 
among seamen. I wonder if they could have screwed 
another turn of speed out of her if they had known 
that the 'Lee' had no board, in addition to her cargo of 
cotton, a large amount of gold shipped by the Confed- 



22 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

erate Government? There continued to be a very 
slight change in our relative positions till about six 
o'clock in the afternoon, when the chief engineer 
again made his appearance, with a very ominous ex- 
pression of countenance. He came to report that the 
burnt cotton had choked the flues, and that the 
steam was running down. 'Only keep her going till 
dark, sir,' I replied 'and we will give our pursuer the 
slip yet.' A heavy cloud-bank was lying along the 
horizon to the south and east ;_ and I saw a possible 
means of escape. At sunset the chaser was about 
four miles astern and gaining upon us. Calling two 
of my most reliable officers, I stationed one of them 
on each wheel-house, with glasses, directing then> to 
let me know the instant they lost sight of the chaser 
in the growing darkness. At the same time, I 
ordered the chief engineer to make as black a smoke 
as possible, and to be in readiness to cut oiF the 
smoke, by closing the dampers instantly, when ord- 
ered. The twilight was soon succeeded by darkness. 
Both of the officers on the wheel-houses called out at 
the same moment, 'We have lost sight of her,' while 
a dense volume of smoke was streaming far in our 
wake. 'Close the dampers,' I called out through the 
speaking tube, and at the same moment ordered the 
helm 'hard a starboard.' Our course was altered 
eight points, at a right angle to the previous one. I 
remained on deck an hour, and then retired to my 
state-room with a comfortable sense of security. We 
had fired so hard that the very planks on the bridge 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 



23 



were almost scorching hot, and my feet were nearly 
blistered."=* 

On examining the Log of the Iroquois, I 
find this entry, repeated, with unvarying mo- 
notony, ao^ain and again, watch after watch, from 
morning to night : — 

"In chase of a strange Steamer." 

A little more steam on the engines of the 
Iroquois, could it only have been obtained, 
would have made a fortune for Captain Case, 
and secured a splendid windfall for every one 
of his officers and crew. 

The Lee ran the blockade no less than 
twenty-one times under Wilkinson, carried out 
from 6,000 to 7,000 bales of cotton, worth two 
millions of dollars in gold, and carried into the 
Confederacy return cargoes of equal value. But 
on November 9th, 1863, the first time she at- 
tempted to run in under another commander, 
she was captured by the Steamer James Adger, 
and sent to Boston as a prize. f 

From this notable example, — ^surpassing 
in protracted interest anything like it in my 
own experience, — the reader will learn some- 
thing of the labor, the care, the fun, the frolic, 
and the peril, too, of that exciting service. 

♦Narrative of a Blockade-Runner, pp. IGl-lGO 
1 1 Lowell's Decisions, 36. 



CHAPTER II. 

First South Atlantic Prizes — Charleston Priva- 
teers — Capture of the Savannah, Petrel, and Beaure- 
gard — Confederate Steamer ISTashville — Mason and 
Slidell's Missidn — Nelson in Chase of Napoleon. 

It was my fortune to serve in the South 
Atlantic Squadron only, seeing no other except 
as a visitor. My reminiscences will therefore 
be confined to the South Atlantic Fleet, and to 
the Military Department of the South, with 
which that fleet cooperated. 

The first prize captured off Charleston was 
the Ship General Parkhill, which had been 
warned ofi" May 12, but disregarded the warn- 
ing, and was taken by the Niagara in attempting 
afterwards to run the blockade. The following 
was the notice endorsed on her Log: — 

"Boarded May 12th, and ordered off the whole 
Southern coast of the United States of America, it 
being blockaded. R. L. MAY, 

Lieutenant, U. S. S. Niagara." . 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 25 



The second of the Charleston prizes was 
the Schooner Savannah, captured by the Brig 
Perry, June 3rd. She had been a pilot-boat at 
Charleston before the War. Her burden was 
fifty-four tons, and her armament one i8-pound- 
er mounted on a swivel amidships. She was 
commanded by Thomas H. Baker, of Charles- 
ton, and manned by twenty-two men. She had 
run the blockade of Charleston one day only 
before her capture, intending to cross the Gulf 
stream, proceed to Abaco, and then lie off Hole- 
in-the Wall to capture any vessels of the United 
States that she could intercept on the voyage 
to and from Cuba. The next day she fell in, as 
Mr. Greeley relates, "with the Brig Joseph, of 
Rockland, Me., laden with sugar from Car- 
denas, Cuba, for Philadelphia. Setting an 
American flag in her main rigging, to indicate 
her wish to speak the stranger, the privateer 
easily decoyed the Joseph within speaking dis- 
tance, when he ordered her captain to lower his 
boat and come ^ on board. This command 
having been readily obeyed, the merchantman 
was astounded by the information, fully authen- 
ticated by the i8-pounder aforesaid, that he was 
a prize to the nameless wasp on whose deck he 
stood, which had unquestionable authority from 
Mr Jefferson Davis to capture all vessels belong- 



26 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

ing to loyal citizens of the United States. 
There was plainly nothing to be said ; so the 
Yankee Skipper said nothing ; but was held a 
prisoner on board his captor, while a prize-crew 
of eight well-armed men was sent on board the 
Joseph, directed to take her with her men into 
Georgetown, S. C," where she was condemned 
as prize of war by the Confederate prize court. 

When the Savannah, afterwards, on the 
same day, hove in sight of the Perry, the cap- 
tain, at once, to follow the quaint narrative of 
Mr. Greeley, "made all sail directly toward her, 
expecting, by the easy capture of a second 
richly laden merchantman, to complete a good 
day's work, even for June. On nearing her, 
however, he was astonished in turn by a show 
of teeth — quite too many of them for his one 
heavy grinder. Putting his craft instantly 
about, he attempted, by sharp sailing, to escape; 
but It was too late. He was under the guns of 
the U. S. Brig Perry, Lieut. E. G. Parrott com- 
manding, which at once set all sail for a chase, 
firing at intervals, as signals that her new 
acquaintance was expected to stop. The 
Savannah did not appear to comprehend ; for 
she sent four shots at the Perry, one of which 
passed through her rigging. So the chase con- 
tinued till 8 o'clock p. :.!., when the Perry had 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 2 7 

hauled so close to the puzzling little craft as to 
order her by trumpet to heave to, when the 
schooner lowered all her sails, and her officers 
ran below. In a few moments, the two quarter 
boats of the Perry were alongside and their 
crews leaped upon the flyaway's deck ; when all 
remaining mystery as to her character was thor- 
oughly dispelled. Her men at once stepped 
forward and surrendered their side-arms ; and 
preceiving there was no bloodshed the leaders 
soon emerged from the cabin, and did like- 
wise. All were promptly transferred to the 
Perry, and returned in her to Charleston bar; 
whence they were dispatched, on the 7th, as 
prisoners, in what had been their own vessel, to 
New York.-" 

The Federal authorities, at first, threatened 
to treat the officers and crew of the Savannah, 
as pirates. But after having recognized Con- 
federate soldiers as prisoners of war, and not 
as murderers, they could not reasonably with- 
hold belligerent rights from Confederate sailors, 
whether serving in public ships of the Confed- 
eracy, like the Atlanta and Alabama, or in 
private armed cruisers bearing Confederate 
letters of marque. And when the Confederate 
States had captured a large number of Federal 
♦American Conflict, vol. 1, p. 598 



28 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

soldiers, and when President Davis threatened, 
as he did in a letter to President Lincoln, to 
punish Federal prisoners in the same manner 
in which his privateers were punished, the Fed- 
eral authorities were forced to recede from their 
untenable position. But I doubt whether the 
sunny-hearted Lincoln or his astute Secretary 
of State ever seriously contemplated the public 
execution of Southern privateers as pirates. 

If the Savannah perished prematurely, 
the Brig Jefferson Davis, which left Charleston 
a short time after, upon the same business, 
had better success.' She had previously been a 
Slaver, called the Echo, and had been condemn- 
ed as such two years before. Her armament 
consisted of a 32-pounder gun, placed amid- 
ships, mounted on a pivot, so that it might be 
used in all directions, and on each side a 32- 
pounder and a 12-pounder; and she was manned 
by 260 men. 

The Jefferson Davis was painted black and 
looked like the craft which the poet described, 

"Built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark." 
She spread terror through New England and 
ran in as near as the Nantucket Shoals, making 
on her way prizes valued roughly at ;^225,ooo. 
After a brief but brilliant career, this famous 
privateer, (for she carried letters of marque 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 29 

from the President whose name she bore,) on 
August 17th grounded on the bar of St. 
Augustine, and was lost. Captain Coxetter and 
all his crew returned in triumph to Charleston. ••'■ 

The third Charleston prize was the Ship 
Amelia, captured by the Wabash and Union, 
June 1 8th. The anniversary of the battle of 
Waterloo proved a Waterloo to her. 

Previous to "this, ( June 8th,) the Union 
had taken the Brig Hallie Jackson off Savannah. 

On the ninteenth of July, the Schooner 
Dixie ran the blockade of Charleston to cruise 
as a privateer. She carried four guns : her 
burden was 150 tons ; her commander, Thomas 
J. Moore, had letters of marque from President 
Davis On the fourth day after leaving Charles- 
ton, she fell in with and captured the Bark Glen, 
from Portland, Maine. Two days later, she cap- 
tured the Schooner Mary Alice, of New York, 
with a cargo of sugar, from the West Indies : but 
this prize was promptly recaptured by the block- 
ading fleet. 

Another week passed, when the Dixie 
captured her third and last prize, the Bark 
Rowena of Philadelphia, with a cargo of coffee. 
Captain Moore transferred himself to his prize. 
On the night of August 27th, the Rowena and^ 
♦Appletou's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, p. 586. 



30 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Dixie ran safely into Charleston, narrowly es- 
caping capture by the Federal blockaders, which 
were too few in number for that wide-mouthed, 
many-channeled port. 

The fourth of the Charleston prizes was 
the Schooner Petrel, taken by the St. Lawrence, 
July 28th. She had previously borne the name 
of Governor Aiken, and had been a United 
States revenue cutter at Charleston. She had 
been out of Charleston but a few hours when 
she fell in with the St. Lawrence, which she 
mistook for a merchantman. The St. Lawrence 
encouraged the mistake by pretending to run 
away until both had got into deep water, and 
the Petrel had approached within close range of 
the St Lawrence. Then, suddenly, an 8-inch shell 
was discharged from the St. Lawrence's Paixhan 
gun, like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky ; it 
fell into the Petrel's hold, exploded, and sent 
her to the bottom in an instant. Four of the 
crew went down with her: the rest were picked 
up by the St. Lawrence's boats. They suppos- 
ed they had heard a clap of thunder, and mis- 
took the flashes of the St. Lawrence's guns for 
lightning. It took some time to satisfy them 
that they had had a fight with a Federal frigate, 
and had been made prisoners of war. Then 
some of them appeared sad ; some glad ; some 
puzzled and amused ; and some indifferent. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 3 1 

The commander of the Petrel, William 
Perry, held a letter of marque from President 
Davis ; and though his little craft carried but a 
single gun, he would, doubtless, have made 
havoc among our merchantmen, had not the St. 
Lawrence, in this summary manner, "prevailed 
on him to stop." He and his officers and men 
were all taken to Philadelphia, and, after 
lying for some time in jail, were exchanged as 
prisoners of war. 

The fifth of the Charleston prizes, the 
Brigantine Hannah Balch, was recaptured by 
the Confederate Steamer Winslow off Hatteras, 
on her way to the prize court. 

Three more prizes, the Middleton, Alert, 
and Watson, taken August 16, October 3 and 
15, by the Roanoke and Flag, complete the list 
of Charleston captures, down to the arrival of 
Dupont at Port Royal, on the Eve of Guy 
P'avvkes' Day, November 4, 1861. 

On the twelfth of November, 1861, the 
Steamer William G. Anderson, cruising in the 
Bahama Channel, captured the Schooner Beau- 
regard, which had run the blockade of Charleston, 
only one week before, to cruise as a privateer. 
She was "a long, low, rakish looking craft," re- 
sembling the ships of the pirates who infested 
those waters from 181 2 to 1820. Her burden 



32 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

was about a hundred tons, and her armament a 
single 24-pounder pivot gun ; and she was 
manned by a captain, two lieutenants, a purser 
and twenty-two seamen. On sighting the 
Anderson, the Beauregard ran towards her till 
she came within four miles, when her captain 
"suddenly hauled by the wind," probably dis- 
covering that the stranger was an armed vessel 
of the Navy, and not a defenceless trader. 

And now the Anderson in turn gave chase, 
and in two hours brought the Beauregard under 
her lee, fired a gun, and ordered the captain to 
come on board with his papers. . The privateer 
captain obeyed that order, and showed a letter 
of marque signed by Jefferson Davis, President 
of the Confederate States, and countersigned 
by Robert Toombs, Secretary of State, and 
bearing the seal of the Confederacy. '■•" 

In his dispatch to the Navy Department, 
Lieutenant William C. Rogers, the commander 
of the Anderson, (who, like all his officers, was 
a volunteer,) says : — 

♦Neither Harper, nor Greeley, nor the Count of Paris, 
nor Lossino-, nor Boynton, mentions the Dixie. Harper, 
alone of these authorities, mentions the Jefferson Davis ; 
while the Count alone mentions the Beauregard ; and he 
errs, as in the case of the Savannah, in saying that she 
captured "a few prizes." Vol 1, p. 430. There is a good 
account of the Beauregard in Putnam's Rebellion Record, 
vol. 2, pp. 429, 430, Gilbert Hay was her commander. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 33 

**We put a prize-master and a crew on 
board, and transferred the prisoners to our ship, 
placing them in double irons. On boarding her 
the crew were found in a drunken state, com- 
mitting all the destruction they could — throwing 
overboard the arms and ammunition, spiking 
the gun, and cutting the sails and rigging to • 
pieces. She was otherwise in bad order and 
poorly found, and having but a short supply of 
water. Having twenty-seven prisoners, and no 
room for them on board the W. G. Anderson, I 
decided, as we were within three days' sail of 
Key West, to take them and the vessel into that 
port and deliver them to the proper authorities." 

There were several other privateers that 
sailed from Charleston, and from Savannah, of 
which I have learned but little — such as the 
Brig Bonita, previously a Slaver ; the iron 
Steamer James Grey; the Schooner Sallie, which 
ran out of Charleston and captured the Brig 
Granada and the Betsy Ames, which were con- 
demned as prizes by Judge Magrath in the 
Confederate Admiralty Court at Charleston and 
sold by the Confederate States Marshal. 

The Savannah, the Petrel, the Dixie, the 
Sallie, the Jefferson Davis, and the Beau- 
regard, were strictly privateers. I now come to 
a vessel of another sort On the 26th of Octo- 



34 LEA VES FROM A LA IVYERS 

ber,'"'" the Confederate Steamer Nashville ran 
the blockade of Charleston under the command 
of Lieutenant Robert B. Pegram,-f then of 
the Confederate States Navy, but previously of 
the Federal Navy, to cruise, not as a privateer, 
but as a public armed vessel of the Confederacy, 
t The Nashville narrowly escaped being- 

captured as promptly as the three privateers 
whose fate I have just now recorded. The 
Steamer Connecticut, which was sent in pur- 
suit of her, put into Burmuda in search of her 
before the Nashville arrived. 

The Nashville captured and destroyed one 
prize, the Ship Harvey Birch, of New York. She 
afterwards ran the blockade of Beaufort, North 
Carolina. At a later period, she entered the 
Ogeechee, and landed a cargo of arms in 

♦This is the correct date. See the Case of tHe United 
Sra^es, iu Papers rehiting to the Treaty of Washiuijton — 
Geneva Arbitration, vol. 1, p. 132; and the Case of 
Great Britain, ihid, p. 232; as well as the Counter Case of 
Great Britain, ihid, vol. 2, pp. 295, 3:1:7. But in the Argu- 
ment of the United States, Messrs. Gushing, Evarts and 
AVaite give the erroneous date of August 26th. Ihid, 
vol. 3, p. 138. The same error disfigures the Opinion of 
Mr. Adams. Ihid. vol. 4, pp. 212-214. 

tCompare his commission, in Putnam's Rebellion 
Record, vol. 3, p. 410, with the commissions of officers in 
the Federal Navy, in Lossing's History of the Civil War, 
vol. 1, p. 560. 



LIFE AFLOAT A ND A SHORE. 3 5 

Georgia, but was blockaded by the Federal 
fleet, and prevented from getting out. Week 
after week, she lay under the guns of Fort 
McAllister, — 

"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean." 

Finally in Febuary, 1863, she was destroyed by 
the Monitor Montauk.'--" 

She seems to have been meant for special 
service on occasions of emergency, and especi- 
ally for duty in connection with the diplomacy of 
the Confederacy. Messrs. Mason and Slidell, 
the envoys to Great Britain and France, were to 
have been carried out by her. 

The Tribunal of Arbitration, at Geneva, 
unanimously decided that Great Britain was not 
liable for the damages done to the commerce of 
the United States by the Nashville. Such also 
was the decision of that Tribunal upon the 
claim of the United States for damages done 
by the Davis, the Sallie and other privateers 
from Charleston. These claims had no such 
foundation as those for damages done by the 

*No historian of the late Civil War gives us anything 
like a clear or connected account of the Nashville. The 
Count of Paris, or rather his translator, errs, as in the 
case of the Sumter, in calling her a "privateer." Vol. 2, 
p. G45. Boynton calls her *'a very fine and fast English 
blockade-runner." History of the Navy &c. vol. 2, p. 
436. As well call her a Chinese war iunk. 



36 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

Alabama, the Florida and other cruisers fitted 
out in British ports. -'' 

On the night of the twelfth of October — 
the same night of extreme darkness on which 
the Confederate Flag Officer HoUins attempted 
to raise the Federal blockade of the passes of 
the Mississippi — the Steamer Theodora, formerly 
called the Gordon, ran out of Charleston, and 
carried to Cuba James M. Mason and John 
Slidell, the Confederate Envoys to Great Britain 
and France. The subsequent seizure of the 
envoys by Captain Wilkes on board the British 
Mail Steamer Trent has been related with all 
desirable fulness by most of the historians of 
the late War ; although, I apprehend, that the 
question of the rightfulness of that seizure is 
generally but little better understood than when 
Captain Wilkes sent across the bow of the 
Trent that famous shell which, like the shot of 
Lexington, was "heard round the world." 

I was in Boston when Mason and Slidell 
were brought to Fort Warren as prisoners of 
war — when the great banquet was given to 
Captain Wilkes — when Governor Andrew "slop- 
ped over," as he had done before, when he 
kissed the gun in the Senate Chamber, — and 

*But see Harriett Martineau's remarks on this subject 
iu lier Autobiography. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 37 

when even the learned Chief Justice Bigelow, 
for the first, last and only time in his career, 
soiled the ermine by using it ad captandiun 
vidgiis with opinions which his sober second 
thought disaffirmed. 

All the newspapers applauded Wilkes. 
His pluck was cheered in every public assembly : 
"his praise was in all the churches." Even 
conservative statesmen, like the late Edward 
Everett, hastened to say, by way of preludes to 
lyceum lectures, that there was a precedent for 
the seizure of these envoys in the capture by 
Great Britain of Henry Laurens, while on his 
way, during our Revolutionary War, in a block- 
ade-runner from the United States to Holland. 
It was only here and there that I met a clear- 
sighted, hard-headed lawyer like Judge Abbott, 
who shook his head ominously, and said, ''This 
wont do. We can never justity, on our 
principles, the seizure of any belligerent on his 
passage in a neutral ship from the port of one 
neutral to the port of another." The great 
natural sagacity of President Lincoln enabled 
him to view this seizure by the clear, cold light of 
reason : and he insisted that Seward, (who was 
the ablest of his lieutenants, though never his 
master) should inform Her Britannic Majesty 
that Captain Wilkes had acted without authority. 



38 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Suppose that, in the late Turko-Russian 
War, an Ambassador of the Porte had been 
seized by the captain of a Russian cruiser on 
board an American steamboat plying between 
New York and Havanna, and taken thence to 
Cronstadt, and there incarcerated as a prisoner 
of war: I apprehend that the American Eagle, 
that blessed Bird of Freedom, would have 
screamed quite as loudly as the British Lion 
growled over the act of Captain Wilkes. 

Some such case, as I have been told, was 
put by the President, hypothetically, in one of 
his conversations with Mr. Seward. 

Had not the darkness of the night, the 
number and width of the channels of Charleston, 
and the fewness of our fleet off the bar, 
prevented the capture of the Theodora, a 
case that ranks among the most famous in the 
history of international relations, would not have 
occurred. And what honors would not have 
been paid to the blockading captain who should 
have captured the Theodora with her distinguish- 
ed passengers. They were to have sailed in 
the Nashville, as I have said ; and how promptly 
the Federal cruisers bounded over the waves to 
catch them, appears from the fact that one of 
them, as already stated, actually reached St. 
Georges, the port of their supposed destination 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 39 

in the Bahamas, before the ship in which they 
were to have sailed, left Charleston. By chang- 
ing the time of their departure, and their port of 
destination, as well as the vessel in which they 
sailed, the Confederate Envoys placed the 
Federal cruisers at the greatest disadvantage. 

How extremely difficult it is to intercept an 
enemy at sea, without knowing his destination, 
was strikingly illustrated by the experience of 
Lord Nelson, when in pursuit of Admiral 
Brueys' fleet, which carried General Bonaparte 
and the **Army of Egypt" to the scene of their 
glory and their shame. Even Nelson, "the first 
and last of the Titans of the sea," did not escape 
cruel outcries of "delatoriness and incapacity," 
which, though they ''redoubled his anxiety," 
could not increase his untiring vigilance and 
sleepless activity. The incidents of this chase 
are thus related by Lamartine in his admirable 
Memoirs of Celebrated Characters : — 

"Bonaparte embarking at Toulon an expe- 
ditionary force, on board the most formidable 
fleet that had navigated the Mediterranean since 
the Crusades, left the English ministers in doubt 
as to the object he had in view. Did he propose 
to pass the Straits, and attack Great Britain in 
one of her European islands or in the Indies "i 
Was it his intention to seize Constantinople, and 



40 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

from thence to dictate to Russia and Austria, 
and to command the seas of Europe ? Lord St. 
Vincent, the admiral in chief command of the 
naval forces of England on the coasts of France, 
Italy and Spain, dared not abandon the blockade 
of Cadiz and the French ports ; he therefore 
dispatched Nelson, as the bravest and most 
skillful of his lieutenants, to watch, pursue, and, 
if possible, destroy the French armament. 
Nelson, successively re-enforced by sixteen sail 
of the line, hoisted his flag in the Vanguard, 
and hastened after the enemy without any cer- 
tain indication of their course. After touching 
at Corsica, already left behind by Bonaparte, 
and examining the Spanish seas, he returned to 
Naples on the i6th of January, 1798, discourag- 
ed by a fruitless search, and in want of stores 
and ammunition, While there, the reports of 
the English consuls in Sicily apprised him of 
the conquest at Malta by the French, with the 
subsequent departure of the fleet as soon as 
that island was reduced, and directed his thoughts 
towards Egypt. 

**The intrigues of Lady Hamilton, animated 
by her double attachment to the queen and to 
Nelson, obtained from the Court of Naples, 
notwithstanding their avowed neutrality, all the 
supplies necessary for the English squadron 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 41 

before they resumed their dangerous cruise. ■'•'■ In 
a few days Nelson was ready to put to sea ; he 
touched at Sardinia, coasted the shores of the 
Peloponnesus, searched the Levant in its full 
extent, dispatched small vessels to look into the 
road of Alexandria, where the French had not 
yet appeared, traversed the Egyptian sea, sailed 
along one side of Candia while the Republican 
fleet passed by on the other, came close to 
Malta, vainly interrogated every ship or boat 
coming from the Archipelago, learned that there 
was already an outcry against him at home for 
his delatoriness or incapacity, exclaimed against 
the winds, crowded additional sail, braved con- 
tinual tempests, and finally, on the ist of August, 
at early dawn, discovered the naked masts of 
the French fleet at anchor in the Bay of 
Aboukir." 

The victory of the Nile then won by Nelson 
was the most complete that had ever been wor^ 
at sea since the invention of gunpowder ; and 
must have shamed those carping critics who had 

*The fatal attachment between Lord Nelson and Lady 
Hamilton, 'like the passion of Antony and Cleopatra, 
''inflamed the coasts of the Mediterrenean, changed the 
face of the world, and carried on to glory, to shame, and 
to crime, a hero entangled in the snares of beauty." See 
Lamartine's fine memoir of Nelson, quoted in Cowley's 
Famous Divorces of All Ages. 



42 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

stung the pride of Nelson with their senseless 
calumnies. 



CHAPTEE III. 

Battle of Port Ko3^al— General T. F. Drayton — 
Occupation of the Sea Islands — General T. W. 
Sherman's Army — Battle of Port Royal Ferry — 
Bobert Small — Ter-centennary of Charles Fort — 
Battle of Secessionville — Blunder of General Ben- 
ham — ^Victory of General Evans — General Stevens. 

Had not the name of Dupont shone among 
the brightest in the American Navy, he would 
not have been assigned to the command of the 
fleet of seventeen men-of-war and thirty-three 
other vessels, which left Hampton Roads, Oct- 
ober 29th, 1 86 1, for Port Royal. His heart may 
well have swollen with both professional and pa- 
triotic pride, as he gave the signal, ''Weigh 
anchor," to a fleet manifold greater than had 
ever before been assembled under any American 
commander. The terrible tempest which sepa- 
rated his fleet off Hatteras, has often been 
compared with that which overtook the Duke 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 43 

of Medina Sidonia and the Spanish Armada, 
nearly three centuries before : and many devout 
souls in the Confederate States regarded it as a 
sign of Divine displeasure towards the Federal- 
ists, and as a proof of the favor of Almighty 
God for the cause of the South. 

The battle of Port Royal was the first oc- 
casion on which a Steam Navy fought land 
batteries while sailing in a circle ; though some- 
thing like it was attempted by Admiral 
Dundas, seven years earlier, in the harbor of 
Sebastopol.* 

Like the later capture of New Orleans, it 
was wholly the work of the Navy, and the Army 
merely held what the Navy acquired. 

The Federal force engaged was so much 
greater than that of the Cenfederates, in the 
number and weight of guns, that to have failed 
of success would have covered it with disgrace. 
The merit of Dupont lies in having effected his 
object with but little loss. 

♦Kiuglake's Invasion of the Crimea, vol. 2, chapter 
17. Admiral Hamelin's signal to the French fteet on that 
occasion, — "Za France regardes vous" — deserves to he 
bracketed with that which thrilled the tars of Nelson on 
the morning of Trafalgar, — "England expects every man 
to do his dnty;" or with the famous "sentiment" with 
which Bonaparte roused the energies of his Colonels on 
the mornino- of the Pyramids, — "From yonder summits 
forty centuries look down upon you." 



44 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

If, as the Duke of Wellington s-aid, the 
art of war consists in the accomplishment of great 
results by small sacrifices, the credit due to 
Dupont can hardly be overstated. 

It is not often that a soldier fights in his own 
village and on his own estates. But General 
Thomas F. Drayton's plantation was hard by 
the fort which his valor defended, and his house 
stood a mile or so distant, within a few yards of 
the beach, commanding one of the finest views 
of land and sea in the whole archipelago of St. 
Helena. Like Dahlgren, Pegram, and many 
other officers, the sad fatalities of the civil war 
compelled General Drayton to fight against his 
own brother. Captain Percival Drayton, who 
commanded the Steamer Pocahontas in, the 
fleet of Dupont. 

, There is a noble essay of Lord Macaulay 
in which Colonel John Hampden, mortally 
wounded at Chalgrove, by Prince Rupert's cav- 
alry, is pictured to us ''with his head drooping, 
and his hands leaning on his horses neck, mov- 
ing feebly out of the battle. The mansion 
which had been inhabited by his father-in-law, 
and from which in his youth he had carried 
home his bride, Elizabeth, was in sight." With 
similar feelings doubtless the Confederate Gen- 
eral Drayton looked back upon that comfortable 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 45 

mansion where he had so often sat listening to 
the melancholy music of the sea, and thinking 
of the possible future of that magnificent bay, in 
which all the Navies of the world might ride. 

Lossing and the Count of Paris give 
excellent detailed accounts of the battle of 
Port Royal. More condensed summaries are 
given by Greeley, Harper, Boynton, and many 
others. The reports of Admiral Dupont and 
Secretary Welles to the President, must not be 
overlooked. '••■ As long as Mr. Welles was in 
office, persistent attempts were made to belittle 
him. Whatever he achieved, the merit of it 
was attributed to Mr. Fox, Mr. Faxon, or some 
body else. Many denied him the credit due 
for his reports, which are among the most mast- 
erly State papers ever penned by a public man. 
Now that he is no more, the truth may perhaps 
be told without offence. Mr. Welles had admir- 
able assistants : but he filled, really as well as 
nominally, the first place in his Department. 

In the matter of style, which is of no 
small importance, (for "the style is the man,") 
he is without a superior among all the men of 
learning who have filled his place, not excepting 
Bancroft, the historian, or Secretary Thompson, 

*See also General Draytou's Report, Id Putuam's Re- 
bellion Record, vol. 11, p. 101. Also vol. 3, pp. 304-318. 



46 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

the keen analyzer and expositor of the relations 
of the Papacy and the Civil Power. •••■ 

This victory of Dupont was achieved 
exactly one year from the day when South Caro- 
lina began her preparations for secession — 
namely, on the day following the election of 
President Lincoln. During the year, the armies 
of the Union had met with so many Big Beth- 
els, Bull Runs, Ball's Bluffs, and Belmonts, that 
the people of the North had become much dis 
couraged. But upon the recovery of the Sea 
Islands by Dupont, "the winter of our discon- 
tent" at once became glorious summer ; and even 
the growlers of the press became cheerful, 
hopeful and happy. 

The late William S. Robinson called 
attention to this coincidence of dates in his 
"Warrington" letters, and added : "Verily this 
has been an eventful and glorious year ; and I^ 
who have been complaining and scolding at the 
government for inactivity, should feel ashamed of 
myself, did I not think that complaint and un- 
easiness and criticism on the part of the press 
and people had been useful in bringing the ad- 
ministration up to its present position." 

♦Mr. Pollard notices the contrast between '*the won- 
derful energy" displayed by Mr. Welles, and the '-feeble 
administration" of the Confederate Navy, in his Lost 
Cause, pp. 192, 224. 



LIFE AFLOAT A ND A SHORE. 47 

Charming self-complacency ! As if the Ad- 
ministration had actually been stimulated in its 
efforts by clamors tending directly to baffle and 
discourage it. 

By the capture of Port Royal we gained an 
admirable naval depot and a firm foothold in the 
region of the Sea-Islands Cotton. It also af- 
forded a grand theatre for those Anti-Slavery 
experiments in which General Hunter, General 
Saxton, Chaplain French, Colonel Higginson, 
E. L. Pierce, and many other gentlemen, and 
many ladies, too, distinguished themselves . 

Beaufort district was one of the richest and 
most thickly settled in the Palmetto State. It 
contained about 1,500 square miles, and pro- 
duced, annually, 50,000,000 pounds of rice, 
and 14,000 bales of cotton. It then had a pop- 
ulation of about 40,000, of whom more than 
three-fourths were slaves. 

Beaufort was named for the beautiful Ga- 
brielle d'Estrees, mistress of Henry the Fourth 
of France, who made her Duchess of Beaufort. 
She it was, more than Duperron or D'Ossat, 
who prevailed upon that amorous monarch to 
renounce Protestantism, and make his peace 
with Rome. 

While the ships of Dupont were spinning 
round the ellipse in Port Royal Harbor, General 



48 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

R. E. Lee was on his way to the Confederate 
Department of South Carolina, Georgia and 
Florida for the purpose of directing and super- 
vising the construction of a line of defence along 
the coasts of those States, He established his 
headquarters at Coosawhatchie, on the railroad, 
about midway between Charleston and Savan- 
nah. '•'" But as Colonel Taylor, of his Staff, 
writes, "beyond the prosecution of this work of 
fortifying the coasts and rivers, nothing of 
importance occurred during his three months' 
stay in this department. He was in Charleston 
at the time of the great conflagration." Early 
in March 1862 he returned to Richmond. 

The military force, which was assigned to 
occupy the Sea Islands, consisted of three bri- 
gades numbering about fifteen thousand men, 
besides artillery, the whole under General 
Thomas W. Sherman. The brigades were as 
follows : — 

FIRST BRIGADE. 
Brigadier-General Egbert S. Viele. 
Third New Hampshire Volunteer .Infantry. 
Eighth Maine 

Forty-sixth New York '' ' " 

Forty-seventh New York ** " 

Forty-eighth New York ** *' 

*Four Years with Gen. Lee, p. 37. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 49 

SECOND BRIGADE. 
Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens. 
Eighth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. ^ 

Fiftieth Pennsylvania " " ; 

One Hundredth Pennsylvania'-'" " 

Seventy-ninth New Yorkf *' *^ 

THIRD brigade:. 

Brigadier-General Horatio G. Wright 
Sixth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. 
Seventh Connecticut " ** ' 

Ninth Maine 

Fourth New Hampshire ** " 

Third Rhode Island 

Dupont and Sherman cooperated admirably 
in recovering and picketing all the Sea Islands 
from the North Edisto River to Wassaw Sound. 
No forcible resistance was made to them by 
the Confederates until New Year's Day, 1862, 
when a determined stand was made under 
Generals Gregg and Pope at Port Royal Ferry, 
on the Coosaw River. General Isaac I. Stevens 
and Captain C. R. P. Rodgers commanded the 
Federal military and naval forces respectively. 
Mr. Lossing's account of the battle of Port 
Royal Ferry is the best that has yet appeared. 

*Commonly called "Roundheads." 
fColonel James Cameron, the first commander of this 
regiment, called "Highlanders," was killed at Bull Run. 



50 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S ' 

Why the Confederate forces made this 
stand at Port Royal Ferry, will readily appear 
when one remembers that "the Shell Road," 
that beautiful and only thoroughfare by land 
between Beaufort and Charleston, strikes the 
Coosaw at this ferry, nine miles north of Beau- 
fort. By this brief battle the Federal forces 
succeeded in destroying the Confederate works 
and in burning their houses ; still, the Coosaw 
River continued, for three years longer, the 
dividing line between the opposing pickets ; the 
Confederates holding the left bank, and the 
Federals holding the right of that stream. 

The Eighth Michigan sustained the heaviest 
fire of grape and canister from the Confederates, 
and here its major, A. B. Watson, was mortally 
wounded. "••' 

On March 31st, 1862, the Department of 
the South was established under General Hun- 
ter, and the name of his predecessor was no 
more heard in South Carolina, Georgia and 

♦See Lossing, vol. 2, p. 127; the Count of Paris, vol. 
1, p. 464 ; and the reports of Dupont, Rodgers, and others, 
in Putnam, vol. 4, pp. 1-10 

This battle is not mentioned by Mr. Greeley, though 
his narrative does contain, as he says, "accounts (nec- 
essarily very brief) of many minor actions and skir- 
mishes which have been passed unheeded by other his- 
torians." Neither does Harper's History mention it. 



J 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 51 

Florida, till another and far greater Sherman 
marched his pic-nic party from Atlanta to 
the Sea. 

The new commander divided the depart- 
ment into three districts — the Northern, under 
General Benham ; the Southern, under General 
Brannan ; and the Western, under General L. G. 
Arnold. '••" The adjutant-general of this depart- 
ment was Major Charles G. Halpine, the famous 
*'Miles O'Reilly," who indited some of his best 
effusions at Port Royal. 

The more striking events in this depart- 
ment have, of course, their place in most of the 
histories of the War ; but none save those who 
shared its severe picket duty, or the severer 
picket duty of the cooperating ships, can duly 
appreciate the importance or the irksomeness 
of the part which it faithfully performed. 
Upon the maintenance of a picket line of 250 
miles in this department depended our holding 
the archipelago of St. Helena ; and upon that 
again depended Sherman's Grand March. 

Colonel Higginson sums up this work in 
these words : — 

"The operations on the South Atlantic 
coast, which long seemed a merely subordinate 
and incidental part of the great contest, proved 
♦Hunter's Order is in Putnam, vol. 4, p. 353. 



52 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER: S 

to be one of the final pivots on which it turned. 
All now admit that the fate of the Confederacy 
^vas decided by Sherman's march to the sea. 
Port Royal was the objective point to which he 
marched and he found the Department of the 
'South, when he reached it, held almost exclus- 
ively by colored troops. Next to the merit of 
those who made the march, was that of those 
who held open the door."--' 

Much has been said about the attempt to 
close the harbor of Charleston by sinking ships 
in its principal channels. Why the Federal 
Navy might not thus seal up a hostile port, as 
Cardinal Richelieu did Rochelle, it is dificult 
to see. But it is useless now to discuss what 
might have been. Sixteen vessels loaded with 
stone were sunk in the Main Channel. But 
two or three spring tides, (those flood tides 
which attend the full moon,) washed the "stone 
fleet" out of the way. 

Harper's History states that, "in a few 
weeks, the Ashley and Cooper Rivers made 
for themselves a new channel, better than 
the previous one." Greeley thinks "the partial 
closing of one of the passes, through which 
the waters of the Ashley and Cooper rivers 
find their way to the ocean, was calculated to 
*Army Life in a Black Regiment, p. 263. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 5 3 

deepen and improve the remaining."'-'" But the 
fact is, there never was a partial closing of the 
ship channel. The sixteen old whalers, loaded 
with stone and sunk checkerwise there, disap- 
peared like phantom ships. 

While the people of Charleston were com- 
plaining of this imaginary peril, a real and over- 
whelming calamity came upon them, and a large 
portion of "the Venice of America" was reduc- 
ed to ashes. 

The daring stratagem of Robert Small, the 
slave pilot of the Confederate Steamer Planter, 
plying between the city of Charleston and the 
forts which defended it, has not escaped the 
notice of Mr. Lossing, or of the Count of Paris. 
It was one of the most brilliant personal 
exploits in a war in which brilliant deeds were 
not uncommon on either side. Small not only 
brought to the Federal fleet a useful vessel and 
four heavy cannon ; but he brought also valuable 
information. From him we learned that General 
Pemberton, who had succeeded General Lee in 
this department, had determined to abandon 
Cole's Island, and was strengthening the 
defences of James' Island. 

Small's intimate knowledge of the River 
and Bay of Stono enabled him to pilot the 
♦Harper, vol. 2, p. 733; Greeley, vol. 2, p. 458. 



54 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

Unadilla, the Pembina and the Ottowa as far 
towads Charleston by that channel as beyond 
Legareville — a service of the greatest import- 
ance to the Navy, although the benefit of it was 
lost by the failure of the Army to move with 
the requisite force and celerity on that line.'-'' 

Small afterwards became an Acting Master 
in our Squadron, and commanded the Planter 
till the end of the War. He has since been a 
State Senator, and is now a Representative in 
Congress. It is true, he has been convicted of 
accepting a Five-Thousand-Dollar Bribe. But 
his conviction was procured by the testimony of 
a single witness, and that witness an accomplice ; 
and there is doubt as to its justness. And even 
if he was guilty, it was at a time when all around 
him, including men who had been brought up 
under the most favorable conditions, were 
rolling in wealth obtained by bribes. 

The generosity of Governor Hampton 
may yet pardon Small. If the Governor hesi- 
tates to condone the bribe-taking on account of 
the "stealing" of the Planter, let him ponder on 

♦Small's bold exploit was not done suddenly, as the 
Count of Paris infers. Vol. 2, p. 234. It was known to 
scores of Charleston slaves, who kept the secret well. 
Strange that neither Greeley nor Harper deigns to notice 
Small, though the latter reports speeches by village poli- 
ticians at flag-raisings. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 55 

the pithy remark of another gallant son of the 
Palmetto State : "You cant expect much moral- 
ity for twelve dollars a month. ""''^" Small's life had 
been passed at hard labor without even twelve 
dollars a month. 

On the twenty-seventh of May, occurred 
the three hundreth anniversary of an event 
which, if we had had not been so strenuously 
engaged in making history that we had little 
leisure for recalling it, might have been celebrat- 
ed from Maine to Mexico — the landing of the 
first European settlers in the United States. 

These settlers were Norman Protestants, 
and their expedition, which consisted of two 
small vessels under the command of Jean Ribaut, 
was fitted out under the auspices of Admiral 
Coligny, the famous Huguenot chief, who perish- 
ed with many thousands of his co-religionists in 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Captain 
Ribaut was an officer of great merit. He was 
accompanied by Rene de Ladonniere, afterwards 
Governor of Fort Caroline, and other gentlemen 
of high repute in their day. 

The expedition left France on the eighteenth 
of February — a day destined to distinction in 

♦Admiral Steadmaii's remark, when voting for a 
lenient sentence on a sailor, found guilty of stealing, by a 
naval general court-martial in 1865. 



56 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

the history of the South as the day of President 
Davis' inauguration, and the day of the evacua- 
tion of Charleston. 

After landing near St. Augustine and at 
other points on the coast of Florida and Georgia, 
on the twenty-seventh of May, 1562, Captain 
Ribaut entered that spacious and beautiful bay 
which, "because of the fairnesse and largenesse 
thereof," (as Ladonniere relates,) he named 
Port Royal. He spent several days in exploring 
the rivers which enter this bay, and in examin- 
ing the coast. Upon this shore he erected a 
column of stone engraven with the arms of his 
native France. Ribaut has sometimes been 
called the discoverer of Port Royal, but he was 
not. The Spanish navigator, Vasquez de AUyon, 
had been there more than forty years before — .in 
1520. 

Having determined to plant a colony here, 
he built a fort, the walls being formed of a kind 
of concrete made largely of oyster shells, and 
called coquina. The remains of these walls are 
still visible on Old Fort Plantation, at the mouth 
of Battery Creek, about six miles from 
Beaufort. As this fort was to contain only 
twenty-six men, it was only twenty-six fathoms 
long and thirteen wide. Captain Ribaut called 
it Charles Fort in honor of his King, Charles 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 57 

the Ninth, and placing it under the command of 
Captain Albert de la Pierria, he turned his prows 
toward France. 

The solitude of the wilderness is as de- 
pressing as the solitude of the sea ; and the 
eniiui endured by the little garrison of Charles 
Fort, "with no civilized neighbors from the 
North Pole to Mexico," can only be compared 
with that which our own Navy experienced dur- 
ing the long blockade of the South. It drove 
them to sickness — to dispair — to insanity. In a 
mutiny which arose, Albert was put to death by 
his own men, and Nicholas Barre was chosen 
commander ; but the fear of coming famine and 
the want of provisions made the men desperate. 
They obtained food from the Indians for some 
time. Finally, they built a rude pinnace — the 
first sea-going vessel ever constructed on this 
Continent — and embarked for France. After 
incredible sufferings from hunger and thirst, 
they were picked up by an English vessel, the 
captain of which presented some of them to 
Queen Elizabeth ; and glad they were to see 
once more their native Normandy. 

Mr. Simms has illustrated the sojourn of 
Albert de la Pierria at Port Royal in the Lily 
and the Totem. Colonel Higginson, whose 
regiment of blacks was encamped for some time 



58 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

near Charles, Fort, during the late War, gives 
extracts from the narratives of Ribaut and 
Ladonniere in his American Explorers. '-•=" 

From Captain Ribaut this Continent re- 
ceived the name of Nouvelle France ; and here 
began that series of efforts to establish French 
supremacy in America, which were renewed, 
again and again, for more than two hundred 
years, till the conquest of Canada by General 
Wolfe in 1759. In fact this dream of a French 
empire was not wholly dismissed till the sale of 
Lomsiana in 1801 ; an act to which the great 
First Consul consented only from inevitable 
necessity, declaring to our Commissioners that, 
but for the certainty that Great Britain would 
seize Louisiana in the war then impending, he 
would rather cut off his right arm than cede 
that territory to the United States. 

On the sixteenth of June, 1862, the Fed- 
eral forces in the northern district of this de- 
partment, aided by three of our gunboats, made 
an assault on the Confederate works, which 
should have been made several weeks earlier, 
or not at all. I refer to the battle of Seces- 
sionville, more often called the battle of James' 

♦See also Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New 
World, De Brey's Florida, and the learned work of 
Professor Rivers. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 59 

Island. The Confederate farces in. this district 
had been increased two days before to 2,000 
men, under General N. G. Evans ; the batteries 
at Secessionville being under Colonel T. G« 
Lamar, of the First South Carolina Artillery. 

The Federal troops on the island outnum- 
bered the Confederates more than three to one, 
but the latter had, of course, an immense 
advantage in position, and not much more than 
half of the former were engaged at all. 

The principal fighting was done by General 
Stevens' division. The first brigade commanded 
by Colonel William W. Renton, made the as- 
sault in the most gallant manner. This brigade 
consisted of the Eighth Michigan, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Graves ; the Seventh Connecticut, 
Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Hawley ; and the 
Twenty-eighth ^Massachusetts, Lieutenant-Col- 
onel M. Moore. It was gallantly supported by 
the second brigade, commanded by Colonel 
Daniel Leasure, consisting of the Seventy-ninth 
New York, Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison ; the 
One Hundredth Pennsylvania, Major Daniel 
A. Leckey ; and the Forty-sixth New York, 
Colonel Rudolph Rosa. 

Two companies of the Eighth Michigan 
under Captains Ely and Doyle, and one com- 
pany of Colonel Serrell's New York Volunteer 



6o LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

Engineers under Captain Sea-s, formed the 
storming party. Captain Rockwell's Connecti- 
cut Light Battery and Captain S. M. Sargeant's 
company of the First Massachusetts Cavalry, 
followed in the rear. 

The Count of Paris praises these young 
and inexperienced troops as having "behaved 
like veterans." They had to advance upon a 
nai;row ridge of sand not over 200 yards wide, 
swept by grape and canister from six cannon, 
(one of which was sighted by Lamar himself,) 
and exposed to a murderous fire from rifle-pits 
and sharp-shooters on both flanks and in their 
rear. The crossing of the famous bridge of 
Lodi could hardly have been more terrible.'"'" 

The batteries they attacked were protected 
by an insuperable abatis, a ditch seven feet 
deep, and a parapet nine feet high. The Count 
of Paris says, "They advanced with the bayonet 
without firing a shot, and had already passed 
the last hedge, situated some five hundred yards 
from the work, before its defenders had become 
aware of their approach. Colonel Lamar had 
scarcely collected a few men, and fired his 
seige-gun once, when the assailants were al- 

♦At St. Helena, Bonaparte said, it was at Lodi, as he 
crossed the bridge with Lannes, that he felt the first spark 
of his all-devouring ambition — which the battles of Tou- 
lon, Milesimo and Monte Notts had failed to kindle. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 6i 

ready in the ditch. One of the most sanguin- 
ary close combats was engaged on the parapet 
itself; it was five o'clock in the morning, the 
day was hot, foggy and damp ; the combatants 
were soon enveloped in dense smoke. The 
boldest among the Federals had penetrated into 
the entrenchments, and planted on them the 
flag of the Eighth Michigan; but they could not 
capture the redoubt, the guns of which, loaded 
with grape, swept the summit of the ridge, and 
opened several gaps in the ranks of the regi- 
ments which Stevens had sent to their 
assistance." 

The gallant Colonel Fenton threw the 
Eighth Michigan as far to the right as possible, 
and used every effort, as General Stevens says, 
"to bring on, in support, the Seventh Connecti- 
cut and the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts ; but 
the terrible fire of grape and musketry from the 
enemy's works cut the two former regiments in 
two, the right going to the right and the left to 
the left, whither, finally, the whole of the 
Twenty-eighth Massachusetts took its position, 
and where thev were joined, with scarcely an 
interval of time, by the One Hundredth Penn- 
sylvania and the Forty-sixth New York, of 
Leasure's brigade. These regiments had been 
brought up with great promptness and energy 



62 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

by Colonel Leasure, and the right of the One 
Hundredth had pushed up to and joined the 
Seventy-ninth in their charge." 

The battle became a massacre. Stevens 
says, "The Eighth Michigan made the most 
heroic exertions, and suffered the most terrible 
losses. Captains Pratt, Church, Guild, and 
Lieutenant Cattrell, commanding companies, 
were killed, and Captains Doyle and Lewis and 
Lieutenant Bates, commanding companies, were 
wounded on or near the parapet of the work. 
-•;:• •:::■ Qf twcnty-two officers of that regiment 
who went into action, twelve were killed and 
wounded." , 

If we had "Highlanders" on our side in 
this battle, so had the South — a Charleston bat- 
talion composed largely of Scots and the de- 
cendants of Scots, under Major David Ramsay, 
(son of the historian,) who was subsequently 
mortally wounded at Fort Wagner. 

In less than half an hour, that gallant 
regiment lost two-fifths of its whole force. The 
total loss on our side "was nearly 600, including 
more than sixty officers. The Confederate loss 
was 207. 

This assault on Secessionville was made by 
General Benham, in violation of the instructions 
of General Hunter, and against the advice of 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 63 

Generals Stevens and Wright. Had the same 
force assaulted these works a month earlier 
when Robert Small brought the information of 
General Pemberton's designs, the result might 
have been different. 

As is stated in the Military and Civil 
History of Connecticut, this movement was an 
inexcusable blunder from beginning to end. "Ten 
thousand men were sent to make a five days' 
march on three days' rations ; and the sequel 
was that they arrived without food, tents, or 
cooking utensils. The only cooking utensil 
the field and staff of the Sixth had, was a gallon 
camphene can, with nozzle and top cut off. In 
this were cooked potatoes, pork, beef, coffee, 
tea, — food of every sort, — for three weeks." 

The battle of Secessionville has been 
shamefully slighted by compilers of histories. 
Harper's work, while treating many engage- 
ments of our Civil War more copiously than 
any other narrative, devotes but a few lines to 
Secessionville. John S. C. Abbott and many 
others omit to notice it. Horace Greeley 
and the Count of Paris tell the story of 
this combat clearly and fairly but more briefly 
than one could wish. Lossing's account is 
of inferior merit. The Military and Civil His- 
tory of Connecticut contains a good account of 



64 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

the distinguished part which the Connecticut 
regiments sustained in this battle; but it is 
avowedly devoted to the Connecticut men 
alone, and the heroes of New York, Michigan 
and Pennsylvania are left unmentioned. In 
Putnam's Rebellion Record the reports of all 
the commanders on both sides, with praiseworthy 
fairness, are printed in full.'-'* 

Mr. Guernsey, who compiled that portion 
of Harper's History which relates to the 
Department of the South, thinks it "a great 
mistake," on Pemberton's part, to abandon Cole's 
Island. Pemberton not being one of Mr. 
Pollard's pets, like Johnston and Beauregard, 
this movement is condemned in the History of 
the Lost Cause. President Davis, however, had 
a high opinion of Pemberton's abilities, though 
he finally sent Beauregard to relieve him, to 
hush the clamor of the politicians and the press. 
I cannot but think that this officer was as wise 
as any of his critics. The lesson thundered 
from the cannon of Dupont at Port Royal, that 
uncovered batteries cannot successfully resist 
the converging fire of heavily armed fleets, had 
not been lost on him. He therefore withdrew 
from a position which, from the depth of the 
adjacent waters, might easily be assailed with 
*Vol. 5. pp. 209-221 ; vol. 12, pp. 494-504. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 65 

effect by the Navy, and strengthened to the 
utmost those inner fortifications which, from the 
shallowness of the water, were practically beyond 
the Navy's reach. Two of our gunboats, the 
Ellen and the Hall, which managed to get into 
this action, when the tide rose high enough to 
enable them to approach, obtained an excellent 
range, and as General Stevens says, "did very 
great execution among the ranks of the enemy.'^ 
Besides this, the great length of the Confederate 
line when Pemberton assumed command, might 
well alarm even a less wary commander. 

General Stevens, soon afterward, took 
command of the second division of General 
Burnside's corps in Virginia. But it was written 
that his sun should go down at noon. On Sep- 
tember 1st, 1862, at Chantilly, seeing the Army 
about to be attacked at a great disadvantao:e, he 
ordered a charge by his own divison, and sent 
one of the captains of his staff to other division 
commanders for assistance ; but none of these, 
except General Kearney, would take the repon- 
sibility of' acting without orders from their 
superiors in command. 

General Kearney saw the supreme peril of 
the situation, and felt as Admiral Villeneuve 
felt on a similar occasion, when he signalled, 
"Every captain who is not in action is not at his 



66 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

post." ''Yes/' replied Kearney, "I'll support 
Stevens in anything/' and at once put his 
columns in motion. 

By this bold movement, Pope's Army was 
saved ; 'and the battle of Chantilly, which 
promised victory to the Confederates, ended 
in their defeat. But General Stevens was shot 
in leading his troops to the charge. General 
Kearney, riding accidentally in the darkness of 
the night within the Confederate lines, was also 
killed. 

Stevens was a native of Andover, Mass., 
a son of the late Nathaniel Stevens, and a 
brother of Oliver Stevens, the District Attorney 
of Suffolk. He had^ previously been Governor 
of Oregon, and had sat in Congress. To sooth 
the South, he had favored the largest conces- 
sions to their demands ; but when the dissolution 
of the Union by force was attempted, he 
tendered his sword to the Federal Administra- 
tion. His services were accepted, but he was 
not given the rank to which he justly thought 
himself entitled by virtue of his education and 
previous service, because of his former affilations. 
One of the newspapers bitterly complained that 
whereas General Stevens had been Chairman 
of the Breckenridge Democracy, in i860, and 
had professed himself a friend of the South and 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE, 67 

its peculiar institutions, and had a few months 
before partaken of the hospitalities of Charleston, 
he now came with a hostile force on an abolition 
crusade.*^' 



CHAPTER lY. 

Battle of Pocotaligo — Battle of Coosawhatchie 
— Attempt to raise the Blockade of Charleston — 
Battle between the Iron-Clads and the Forts— 
Dupont's Prizes. 

The Charleston and Savannah Railroad was 
of the first importance to the Confederate forces 
in this department, because, upon an attack at 
either end of that line, the force at the other end 
could be relied on for support. Colonel B. C. 
Christ, with the Fifteenth Pennsylvania, two 
Companies of First Massachusetts Cavalry, and 
a section of the First Connecticut Battery, had 
destroyed several miles of this railroad, by order 
of General Stevens, shortly before the battle 

♦See Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1862, article 
* 'Stevens." In the article on the Army Operations of 
this year, the battle of Secessionville is not mentioned. 

Injustice to General Benham, I refer to an able de- 
fence of his conduct, in Putnam, vol. 6, pp. 236-241. 



6S LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

of Secessionville, but the damages had been 
promptly repaired by the Confederates. 

The Count of Paris, combining in himself 
the instincts and accompHshments of a soldier, 
a sailor, a scholar and a statesman, has given an 
admirable account of the attempts which our 
military and naval forces, under General Bran- 
nan and Captain Steedman respectively, made 
to cut this railroad in October, 1862, and of the 
battles which they fought at Pocotaligo and at 
Coosawhatchie.* 

The attack of the Confederate rams on the 
Federal gunboats off Charleston, on January 
31st, 1863, is imperfectly recorded by all the 
historians of the late war. And I venture to 
observe that too little attention has been given 
to the peculiar circumstances under which that 
attack was made, and which, in fact, probably 
led to it ; for on no other occasion did the Con- 
federate rams ever assume the offensive at 
Charleston. 

It must be remembered that, on the pre- 
ceding day, the Steamer Isaac Smith, while mak- 
ing a reconnoisance on the Stono, went too far 

♦Volume 2, pp. 622-G26. Greeley's account, (vol. 2, p. 
462,) and Lossing's, (vol. 3, p. 189,) are less full, and 
both exaggerate the losses on our side. See the reports 
of the commanders on both sides in Putnam, vol. 6, pp. 
34-41. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 69 

up that stream, and was destroyed on her re- 
turn by three batteries, which were suddenly 
unmasked at one of the many bends in that 
serpentine channel. 

It must also be remembered that two of the 
strongest vessels of the blockading fleet had 
gone to Port Royal to coal, leaving the blockade 
exceptionally weak just at that time. 

It must also be remembered that the noble 
blockade-runner, Princess Royal, (the gross pro- 
ceeds of which steamer, with her cargo, even at 
a marshal's sale in Philadelphia, amounted to 
^360,000) had just been run ashore and captured 
by the blockading fleet, and was lying off the 
bar, almost challenging an eflbrt on the part of 
the Confederates to wrest her from our grasp. 

Moreover, one of these rams had been re- 
cently built by the proceeds of a great fair, held 
by the ladies of Charleston, who had not shrunk 
from the greatest exertions and sacrifices for the 
cause of Southern Independence ; and there was 
a general demand on the part of the ladies who 
led society in Charleston for a demonstration by 
the Confederate Navy, commensurate with their 
own efforts, for that cause. 

" It was known," says the Charleston Cou- 
rier of February 2d, in its glowing account of 
this " Brilliant Naval Victory ;" '' it was known 



70 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

that the vessels guarding the approaches to the 
city were of wood, and could not cope with the 
mailed rams whose grotesque ugliness and saucy- 
look we had so often admired." It was also 
known that the New Ironsides was soon to join 
the blockading fleet. "'■•' 

Besides all this, it was well known through- 
out the South that Napoleon the Third had re- 
cently made overtures to Great Britain and Rus- 
sia, looking to mediation and recognition of the 
Southern Confederacy, and even to intervention 
in its behalf,f and though the reply of Russia 
was not all that could be desired by the Confed- 
erates, or by Napoleon himself, it strongly indi- 
cated that a few more victories in the field of 
battle, especially if accompanied by the break- 
ing of our blockade, might secure that recog- 
nition which had thus far been withheld. 

Practically then, (strange to say,) Great 
Britain was thus the only obstacle in the path of 
that recognition which France proposed, and to 
which her Emperor was billing to add an alli- 

*Boynton innocently remarks, "No one of our iron- 
clads seems to have been at that time off the harbor," 
vol. 2, p. 432 As though any of our iron-clads had been 
there before. 

tAppleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1862, article, "Pub- 
lic Documents," contains this correspondence. The De- 
partment of State also printed it. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 7 1 

ance offensive and defensive with the Confeder- 
ate* States. If then the Federal blockade of 
Charleston could be raised, might not Great Brit- 
ain withdraw her negative upon the policy of 
France ? 

It was with reference to this, as I have been 
told, that a Southern preacher preached a power- 
ful and passionate political sermon from the text, 
" There is a lion in the way," vehemently de- 
nouncing the British Lion for placing himself 
across the track of Southern Independence, 
when the Pope of Rome had recognized and 
blessed the standard of the South as equal in 
the temporal order with the banner of St. Peter. 

The Federal fleet, at this time, consisted of 
the Housatonic, Captain W. R Taylor, senior 
officer present ; the Mercedita, Captain F. S. 
Stellwagen ; the Flag, Commander J. H. Strong; 
the Quaker City, Commander J. M. Frailey; 
the Key Stone State, Commander W. E. Le- 
Roy ; the Augusta, Commander E. G. Parrott ; 
the Unadilla, Lieutenant-Commander S. P. 
Quackenbush : the Memphis, Lieutenant-Com- 
mander P. G. Watmough ; the Ottawa, Lieu- 
tenant Commander W. D. Whiting ; the Stettin, 
Lieutenant C. J. Van Alstine ; together with 
the Schooner Blunt and the Yacht America. 

The fleet of Flag Officer Ingraham con- 



72 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

sisted of his Flagship, the Palmetto State, an 
iron-clad steamer, built after the style of the 
Atlanta, commanded by Captain Rutledge ; and 
the Chicora, another iron-clad steamer, of the 
same style of construction, commanded by Cap- 
tain Tucker; with three steamers acting as tend- 
ers — the Governor Clinch, the Ettiwan, and the 
Chesterfield. 

The Palmetto State, approaching the Mer- 
cedita unsuspected in the darkness, was hailed 
by her watch officer : " What steamer is that ? 
Drop your anchor. Back — back. Steer clear of 
us and heave to." Captain Rutledge answered : 
"This is the Confederate States Steamer Pal- 
metto State," — at the same time ramming the 
Mercedita through amidships, at and below the 
water line, and discharging a seven-inch shell 
from his bow gun, which, entering the starboard 
side of the Mercedita, passed through her con- 
denser and the steam drum of her port boiler, 
and exploded, passing through her port side, 
killing and scalding her men, and so completely 
disabling her, that Captain Stellwagen at once 
hauled down his flag. The Confederate Captain 
ordered him to send a boat, which was done, and 
Lieutenant Commander Abbot went aboard and 
gave his parole in behalf of himself and all the 
officers and crew. Upon this pledge, not to serve 



I LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 73 

Sullivan's Island. 

"^1 



2 

3 



4 



Beach Channel. 
Shoals. 

• 5 

• 6 

• 7 

Main Channel • 

• 8 
• 9 
• 10 

'""Folly'"'"''*' 
Island. 

The dotted line indicates the bar. The Agues 1—10 
show the positions of the blockading vessels. The rams 
passed down the main ship channel, crossed the bar, and 
turning, one to the right, the other to the left, attacked 
the first vessels they met. Then turning to the north- 
east, (the battle ended,) they recrossed the bar, lay seven 
hours in the beach tihannel and then returned to the inner 
harbor of Charleston. The distance from the right to the 
left of our line was about twelve miles. 



74 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

against the Confederate States until regularly 
exchanged, Abbot was allowed to return to his 
ship, but no further steps were taken to secure 
her. 

Meantime, the Chicora attacked the Key 
Stone State, giving her a shot from her bow gun 
and afterwards a broadside. In the fight which 
ensued, the Chicora sent a shot through both 
the chimneys of the Key Stone State, and struck 
her with ten rifle shells, (two of them bursting on 
her quarter ^eck,) killing twenty of her crew, 
including her surgeon, and wounding twenty 
more, and utterly disabling her. 

By this time other vessels of our fleet, hear- 
ing guns and signals of distress, came from their 
several stations off the bar to the help of their 
consorts. Seeing these, the Confederate Flag 
Officer speedily abandoned the struggle. On 
his return to Charleston, he and General Beau- 
regard issued a proclamation that the blockade 
had been raised. A counter statement was made 
by the captains of the blockading fleet, and no 
ship attempted to act on the faith of the pro- 
clamation. 

Although the greater part of the fighting 
on the Confederate side was done by the Chi- 
cora, the narratives of Greeley, Lossing, Boyn- 
ton, and a score more writers, erroneously credit 



1 



LIFE A FL OA T A ND A SHORE. 7 5 

\ 

the Palmetto State with two separate battles, 

first with the Mercedita, and then with the Key 
Stone State.-'' 

None of our historians seem to have read 
the testimony before the naval court of inquiry 
touching this battle. 

A question arose, whether the parole of the 
Mercedita's officers and crew was binding upon 
them, after the Confederate fleet had abandoned 
them. A similar question arose a few months 
later, when the Army Steamer, George Wash- 
ington, was destroyed by the Confederates near 
Beaufort. The officer in command ran up a 
white flag, and then ran away, with his men, to 
the Beaufort shore. They were fired on, as they 
ran through the marshes, by the Confederates, 
who treated their attempt to escape as a resum- 
tion of hostilities. Admiral Semmes followed 
these precedents, when he struck his flag to the 
Kearsage, and then jumped overboard. 

It seems clear that it is the right, if not the 
duty, of a prisoner of war to escape if he can ; 

♦The reports of all the commanders on b 'th sides 
are printed in Putnam's Rebellion Record, vol 6, pp. 401- 
415. But the editor should have punctuated them with 
the names of the several vessels referred to. Not beini; 
able in the darkness to identify the opposing ships, these 
commanders had to use descriptive phrases. N'»t one 
reader in ten thousand can now tell to what vessels these 
phrases apply. 



'je LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

and the duty of a captor to hold his prisoner if 
he can. By neglecting to follow up the capture 
of the Mercedita, by putting a prize master on 
board of her, it would seem pretty clear that 
Commodore Ingraham abandoned his conquest, 
and thereby relieved his prisoners from their 
parole. 

Considering that, as Commodore Ingraham 
says, (in his official dispatch to Secretary Mall- 
ory,) " everything was most favorable for " 
the Confederate rams, the wonder is, that they 
did not achieve in fact what the Confederate 
commanders claimed to have achieved. Had 
the Confederate Captain Buchanan been in 
command of these rams, the result might have 
been different. The Confederate Rams passed 
within the shadow of a great opportunity ; but 
they failed to take advantage of it ; and it never 
occurred again. 

During seven mortal hours after the battle, 
these rams lay at anchor, at the entrance of 
Beach Channel, waiting for the rising of the 
tide to take them back to the city. Most of the 
Federal vessels returned to their stations out- 
side the bar in full view. I have been told, and 
can readily believe, that during this time, some 
of the younger officers and men of the rams 
became disgusted with the situation, and impa- 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE, yy 

tient to resume the fight. Could the Confederate 
States have had, but for one hour, the services 
of Farragut, or of Porter ; or could the soul of 
one of those old Titans of the sea, under whom 
the English, French, Dutch, and American Nav- 
ies won their great historic renown, have entered 
into and taken possession of Ingraham on that 
dark winter's morning ; how different might the 
course of events have been ! 

Having had but little personal connection 
at any time with the operations on the southern 
part of the coast assigned to the South Atlantic 
Blockading Squadron, my journal contains noth- 
ing touching various events which occurred in 
that region additional to what will be found in 
the narratives of the historians, to whose vol- 
umes I so often refer: — such as the destruction 
of the Nashville, which even Dupont calls a 
"privateer;" the storming of Fort McAllister; 
the bombardment and capture of Fort Pulaski ; 
and the capture of the Atlanta. One of the 
very best accounts of the battle between the 
Weehawkin and the Atlanta, June 17, '4863, will 
be found where one rarely looks for a graphic 
picture of a battle, in Judge Sprague's decision 
condemning the Atlanta as a prize."'-" 

♦2 Sprague's Decisions, p. 253. The opinions of 
Judges Sprague, Lowell, and Blatchford, in prize cases, 
are valuable to the historian as well as the lawyer. 



yS LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

The battle between the iron-clads and the 
forts of Charleston, had been long in prepara- 
tion ; and when it was finally fought, April 7th, 
1863, it was witnessed and reported by many of 
the ablest writers in all the leading newspapers, 
both North and South. The best of the reports 
is that of William Swinton, the historian of the 
Army of the Potomac, in the JVew York Times/'' 

It is not my purpose to fight this battle over 
again ; but merely to correct some of the errors, 
and supply some of the omissions of the popu- 
lar historians. 

All of these writers state that General G. 
T. Beauregard commanded the Department, and 
Brigadier-General R. S. Ripley, the First Mili- 
tary District, at the time of the battle ; but 
none of them give the names of the subordinate 
commanders or of their commands. 

Bragadier- General Trapier, commanding 
second subdivision of this district, was present 
at Fort Moultrie ; Brigadier-General Gist, com- 
manding first subdivision, at Fort Johnson ; 
Colonel R. F. Graham, commanding third sub- 
division, on Morris Island, and Colonel L. M. 
Keitt, commanding Sullivan's Island, at Battery 
Bee, attending to their duties and awaiting the 
development of the attack. 

*It is reprinted in Putnam, vol. 0, pp. 502-512, and 
with it is tliat of tlie Charleston Mercury. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 79 

The fortifications engaged were those which 
formed what General Ripley called his *' first 
circle of fire." There were 'six of them — Sum- 
ter, Moultrie. Bee, Beauregard, Wagner and 
Gregg ; and they were commanded and garri- 
soned as follows : — 

Fort Sumter — Colonel Alfred Rhett ; 
Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Yates, and Major 
Ormsby Blanding, with seven companies of the 
First South Carolina Artillery. 

Fort Moultrie — Colonel William But- 
ler, and Major T. M. Baker, with five companies 
of the First South Carolina Infantry. 

Battery Bee — Lieutenant Colonel J. C. 
Simkins, with three companies of the First 
South Carolina Infantry. 

Battery Beauregard — Captain J. A. Sit- 
greaves, with two South Carolina companies — 
one of Artillery and one of Infantry. 

Battery Wagner — Major C. K. Huger, 
with two companies of the First South Carolina 
Artillery. 

Battery Gregg — Lieutenant H. R. Les- 
esne, with a detachment of the First South 
Carolina Artillery. 

Several companies of the Twentieth South 
Carolina Infantry, under Captain P. A. McMi- 
chael, stood on Sullivan's Island to repel any 



8o LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

attack by land ; while the Twenty-first South 
Carolina Infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel 
Dargan, occupied Morris Island, for the same 
purpose. 

The Confederate iron-clads Chicora and 
Palmetto State, under Captain J. R. Tucker, lay 
above Fort Sumter, the principal point of at- 
tack, but took no part in the engagement. 

Dupont led the attack with his pennant fly- 
ing from the Ironsides. His ships advanced in 
single file — four monitors, the flag-ship, three 
monitors, and the iron-clad, Keokuk, as follows : 

1. Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers ; 

2. Passaic, Captain Percival Drayton ; 

3. Montauk, Commander John L. Worden ; 

4. Patapsco, Commander Daniel Ammen ; 

5. New Ironsides, Commander Thos. Turner; 

6. Catskill, Commander George W. Rodgers ; 

7. Nantucket, Commander Donald M. Fairfax ; 

8. Nahant, Commander John Downes,; 

9. Keokuk, Lieut.-Commander A. C. Rhind. 

Captain Joseph F. Green lay outside with 
the Steamers Canandaigua, Housatonic, Una- 
dilla, Wissahickon, and Huron, as a force in re- 
serve. General Seymour lay below, with a mil- 
itary force, ready to assist the Navy by a descent 
upon Morris Island, or upon Sullivan's Island, 
or in any other way. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 8i 

The sky and the sea shone like seas of 
glass, ** the blue above, and the blue below ;" no 
sound was heard, no shot was fired on either 
side, and not a man was seen on the decks of 
the monitors, as our turtle-backed fleet steamed 
along in front of Morris Island, until it came 
within range of Sumter. Then, at ten minutes 
past three, the batteries of that grim fort opened, 
and those on Morris and Sullivan's Islands 
promptly joined. 

The ships of Dupont, formed in line of bat- 
tle, (not ** huddled helplessly together," as 
Boynton erroneously states,) instantly returned 
the fire of the forts. The thunder of artillery 
became terrific ; the water seemed to boil and 
hiss, when struck by solid shot or exploding 
shell ; clouds of smoke and flashes of fire filled 
the air for two miles, from Sullivan's to Morris 
Island. 

The result is known to all. In thirty min- 
utes Dupont became ** convinced of the utter 
impracticability of taking the city of Charleston 
with the force under his command ;" and every 
one of his commanders concurred in this view. 
Brave as Dupont was, the defences of Charles- 
ton had been so perfected by the Confederates, 
that he feared and said that " a renewal of the 
attack on Charleston would be attended with 



82 LEA VES FROM A LA IVVER'S 

disastrous results, involving the loss of this 
coast."'-"' But the Rev. Dr. Boynton thinks that 
**Dupont was mistaken in all his main opinions.'' 

Many writers have stated the number of 
guns engaged on the Confederate side to be 
300 ; some, 350 ; and some, 400. But there were 
not 300 guns mounted in all the defences of 
Charleston ; and the guns of the second and 
third circles of fire were not engaged. 

The nine Federal iron-clads carried thirty- 
three guns, twenty-three of which were actually 
used. The six Confederate works mounted 
seventy-six guns, of which sixty-nine were actu- 
ally used. No matter how often the experiment 
is 'made ; as often as sixty-nine guns are used 
against twenty-three, afloat or ashore, I venture 
to predict that the sweet goddess of Victory will 
bestow her most bewitching smile on the party 
that has the heaviest artillery. 

The Federals fired 139 fires — 96 shells, 30 
solid shot, and 13 cored shot. Of these, 55 
struck the walls of Sumter, two of the shells 
passing through her walls. 

The Confederates fired 2,229 shots, with 
21,093 pounds of cannon powder, and hit the 
iron-clads 248 times. 

♦The reports of Dupont and his captains are ap- 
pended to Secretary Welles' report for 1863, and reprinted, 
in substance, in the second volume of Boynton. 



^ ' LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 83 

It is true, the guns of the Federals were of 
larger calibre than most of those on the Confed- 
erate side, so that the weight of metal was more 
nearly equal, (as General Ripley suggests ;) and 
the Federals had also a broad mark to aim at, 
while the Confederates had much smaller tar- 
gets ; — but the advantage of position was clearly 
with the Confederates.* 

Mr. Lossing suggests that, *' Had a suffi- 
cient supporting land force been employed in 
vigorously attacking the Confederates on Morris 
Island, and keeping the garrisons of Battery 
Gregg and Fort Wagner engaged while the 
squadron was attacking Fort Sumter, the result 
might have been different." It is seldom worth 
speculating on what might have been. But an 
answer to Mr. Lossing's suggestion is found in 
the failure of all subsequent attempts to carry 
Wagner by storm, and in the terrible sacrifices 
of life which they involved. 

Admiral Dupont remained in command of 
the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron three 
months after this repulse. During his command 
32 prizes were taken at Charleston, although, it 
is to be noted, no part of the blockading fleet 
lay within the Bar, namely: — 

*See the reports of the Confederate commanders in 
Putnam, vol. 10, pp. 517-535. 



84 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Albert, Aquilla, Anna Dees, Antelope, 
Amelia, Belle, Coquette, Cambria, Cora, Cata- 
lina, David Crockett, Dixie, '^' Emily St. Pierre, 
Elizabeth, Eliza, Flash, Guide, Hettivvan, Hav- 
elock, Louisa, Maria, Mary Teresa, Mercury, 
Major E. Willis, Neptune, Patras, Providence, 
Princess Royal, Rebecca, Stettin, Sarah and 
Secesh. 

In his time, the Yacht America was cap- 
tured by the Steamer Ottovva, and transferred 
to the Army. She is now in the hands of Gen- 
eral Butler. 

Besides Charleston, upwards of twenty 
other ports were guarded by this squadron ; and 
more prizes, in the aggregate, were taken at these 
other ports than at Charleston. Some of Du- 
pont's prizes were very valuable, as the Atlanta, 
valued at $350,000 ; the Cambria, $191,000 ; the 
Lodona, $246,000 ; the Princess Royal, $360,- 
000 ; the Stettin, $226,000, etc. 

Within two months after Ingraham's at- 
tempt to raise the blockade with the rams, three 
European men-of-war touched off the bar, and 
sent a boat to the city with dispatches to their 
consuls. I refer to the British Steam Sloop 
Desperate, February 27 ; the British Frigate 

*She had been a privateer. See page 29. She was 
sold for $30,000. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 85 

Cadmus, March 2, and the French Steamer 
Milan, March, 30. 

In Duponi's time, no foreign vessel of war 
was prevented from visiting any blockaded port. 
This was in conformity with the proclamation of 
blockade and the practice of the most liberal 
nations ; though at a later period, it was held 
by his successor that '* the intervention of our 
lines of attack" prevented this.-'-' 



CHAPTER V. 

Admiral Dahlgren in command — Descent on 
Morris Island — General Strong — Storming of Fort 
Wagner — Morris Island evacuated — Naval Assault 
on Fort Sumter — Blockade-running — Torpedo At- 
tack on the Ironsides — Loss of the Weehawken. 

Admiral Dahlgren relieved Admiral Du- 
pout, July 6, 1863. General Gilmore had pre- 
viously relieved General Hunter, and a joint 
movement was made upon Morris Island. Pre- 
paratory to this movement, Folly Island, which 
General Beauregard had not fortified at all, was 
occupied by General Vogdes, who secretly, with 
great adroitness, erected a battery on the north- 
♦Dahlgren's Maritime International Law, pp. 54-60. 



86 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

em extremity of the island, and placed 47 pieces 
of artillery in position within pistol shot of the 
Confederates, on Morris Island, without being 
discovered at all. The great importance of this 
bold achievement of Vogdes, will readily appear 
when one considers the position of this Island, 
which commands Stono Harbor, Stono Inlet, the 
water approaches to James Island, and the south- 
erly extremity of Morris Island. 

While most of the writers, on the Federal 
side, bestow little praise on Vogdes, Pollard takes 
occasion to give Beauregard a lecture for his 
" want of vigilance " in not guarding against this 
surprise. ■'•'■ 

The historians of the War trace, more or less 
accurately, the progress of the descent upon 
Morris Island, henceforth famous in history ; 
but none of them have caught sight of the strik- 
ing and picturesque figure of the youthful Gen- 
eral Strong, springing upon the lower forts with 
the agility of a deer, waiving aloft his sword, and 
shouting to his troops, ** Come on. Brigade." 

In jumping impatiently from the launch into 
the surf beating upon the beach, his high-topped 
cavalry boots were filled with water, and his 
clothes wet through. Thereupon he threw off 
his coat and hat, and sat down upon the bank, 
♦History of the Lost Cause, p. 430. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE, ^7 

while his faithful negro boy made a bootjack of 
himself, and removed the incumbrances. Time 
was then too precious to waste on hose, so Gen. 
Strong led the charge of July loth in his 
stockings, getting his feet repeatedly cut by oys- 
ter shells at different points on tlie beach. 

In the Romances, falsely called Histories, 
of different wars, one sees the General hand- 
somely dressed, cavorting upon a horse richly 
caparisoned. In the grim and bloody reality, 
the General more often fights in a plight as un- 
presentable as that of the gallant Strong. Na- 
poleon crossed the Alps wrapped in a grey over- 
coat and mufler, mounted upon an humble mule, 
led by a young mountaineer, who did not know 
him ; but David paints him wrapped in imperial 
purple, bounding over the Alps upon a fiery 
stallion. 

In all the annals of modern war, no example 
can be found where an army thus approached an 
enemy's shore in boats, landed under a fire of 
artillery and infantry, and disloged the enemy 
from his fortifications. The descent on Morris 
Island almost recalls Caeser's descent on Brit- 
ain, or the landing of William the Norman at 
Hastings. 

It is remarkable that the Charleston Mer- 
cury foreshadowed this ** assault from barges " 



8S LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

on the very morning it was made, but closed by 
saying, '* We see no ground for agitation." 

This descent would not have been attempted 
without the aid of the Navy. Admiral Dahlgren, 
with his flag flying from the Catskill, led four 
monitors over the bar at four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, as follows : — 

1. Catskill, Commander George H. Rodgers ; 

2. Montauk, Commander D. McN. Fairfax ; 

3. Nahant, Commander John Downes ; 

4. Weehawken, Commander E. R. Colhoun. 

These monitors approached as near to Mor- 
ris Island as the depth of water would permit, 
and moved along in front of that island, shelling 
the Confederates vigorously as they retreated, 
and finally opening fire on Wagner. On that 
day, they fired 534 shell and shrapnell, and the 
Steamer Catskill was struck sixty times. Lieut- 
enant-Commander Francis M. Bunce, with four 
navy howitzer launches, with picked crews, cov- 
ered the landing, approaching Light House Inlet 
by way of Folly Island Creek, at day-break, and 
engaging the rifle-pits and batteries of the Con- 
federates. 

The regiments here engaged were the Ninth 
Maine, the Third New Hampshire, the Sixth and 
Seventh Connecticut, the Forty -eighth New 
York, and the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 89 

The Confederate force engaged numbered 
about seven hundred, and consisted of the 
Twenty-first South Carolina volunteers, Colonel 
R. T. Graham ; two companies of the First South 
Carolina artillery, Captains John C. Mitchell, 
(son of the Irish refugee,) and J. R. Macbeth; 
and a detachment of the First South Carolina 
infantry, Captain Charles T. Haskell. 

''Our men," says the Charleston Courier, 
*' were exposed during the whole fight to a mur- 
derous fire from the four monitors, who hurled 
their enormous missiles with telling effect." 

The Edgefield Advertiser said, the roar of 
the Federal guns was heard, and the reports 
counted, in that district, distant 130 miles. 

Not since the capture of Port Royal, had the 
Federals achieved such important results with 
such small losses. Only fourteen were killed, 
and less than a hundred wounded ; while the 
loss of the Confederates, in killed and wounded 
and captured, was 294. Captains Langdon 
Cheves and Charles T. Haskell, and Lieuten- 
ant John S. Bee, were among the killed ; and 
among the wounded was Captain J. R. Macbeth, 
son of the Mayor of Charleston, and nine other 
commissioned officers. 

After sleeping all night without tents, and 
almost without food, on the morning of July 



go LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

nth, the Ninth Maine, the Seventh Connecticut 
and the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, under Gen- 
eral Strong, made an assault on Wagner. The 
Seventh reached the ditch ; but the other regi- 
ments, especially the Pennsylvania regiment, 
then commanded by Major Hicks, failed to 
come up in support; and Strong, with tears of 
grief and mortification rolling down his cheeks, 
exclaimed bitterly, •' It is useless," and ordered 
a retreat. 

The Confederate loss was very small — one 
officer and five privates killed ; one officer and 
five privates wounded. The loss on the Federal 
side has often been understated. The Confed- 
erates buried 95 of the Federals (chiefly of the 
Seventh Connecticut) within their lines, and 
captured 210 prisoners, eighty of whom were 
wounded. How many others were killed and 
wounded, I never learned ; but the correspond- 
ent of the Philadelphia Iiiqttircr stated that 350 
men who had been wounded in the assault, were 
carried in the Steamer Cosmopolitan to Hilton 
Head. Among the wounded was Lieutenant- 
Colonel Rodman of the Seventh Connecticut, 
and Major Hicks of the Seventy-sixth Pennsyl- 
vania, who was also captured. 

Greeley, Harper, Lossing, Pollard, and oth- 
ers, couple the losses of the loth with those of 



LIFE AFLOAT A ND A SHORE. 9 1 

the nth, and their statements are confused and 
inaccurate.* 

The second assault on Wagner was made 
on Saturday night, July 18. If the Federals 
had gained much by opening the . ** parallels," 
the Confederates had gained more by reenforce- 
ments from North Carolina and Georgia. 

General William Taliafero, one of Stone- 
wall Jackson's veterans, commanded the Con- 
federate forces at Wagner, (Beauregard and 
Ripley being his superior officers,) which con- 
sisted of the Charleston Battalion, Lieutenant 
Colonel Gaillard and Major Ramsay ; the Fifty- 
first North Carolina, Colonel McKeatchin ; and 
the Thirty-first North Carolina, Lieutenant 
Colonel Knight. There were also two compan- 
ies of the First South Carolina, Captains Tatum 
and Adams ; two companies of the Sixty-third 
Georgia, Captains Buckner and Dixon ; and 
Captain DuPass' company of light artillery ; — ■ 
all under Lieutenant Colonel Simkins. They 
were reenforced during the battle by the Thirty- 
second Georgia, Colonel Harrison. The guns 
of Sumter and Gregg joined with those of Wag- 
ner in pouring their fire upon the assaulting 
columns. 



*Greeley, vol. 2, pp. 475-476 ; Harper, 740 ; Lossiug, 
vol. 3, p. 202; Pollard, 431. 



92 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

The assault was preceded by a teriffic bom- 
bardment from the New Ironsides, from the five 
monitors, Montauk, (carrying the flag of the Ad- 
miral,) Catskill, Nantucket, Weehawken, and 
Patapsco, and also from the gunboats Paul Jones, 
Ottowa, Seneca, Cheppewa, and Wissahickon, 
as well as from several sand batteries on Morris 
Island. 

This bombardment lasted eight hours, (not 
"forty-eight," as Pollard's types make him say,) 
during which nine thousand shell were hurled 
at the fated fort. It ceased only when diarkness 
came on, and when its further continuance would 
have involved the slaughter of the assaulting 
column. 

The brigades which Strong and Putnam 
led in this assault, were formed for this special 
service. Some of the regiments had never met 
before, and had never before seen their brig- 
ade commanders or the colonels who so soon 
succeeded them in command. Strange to say, 
many of those who fought in that terrible com- 
bat, cannot agree as to the composition of these 
brigades. Gen. Gillmore's statement of the com- 
position of these brigades is not followed by 
Greeley or Lossing, and is not entirely correct. 

Colonel Robert G. Shaw led the attack 
with the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored). 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 93 

Among the non-commissioned officers and priv- 
ates was a son of the famous Frederick Douglass, 
with many other superior men. But at this time, 
all the commissioned officers were white. They 
went forward at ** double quick" with great en- 
ergy and resolution ; but on approaching the 
ditch they broke : the greater part of them fol- 
lowed their intrepid colonel, bounded over the 
ditch, mounted the parapet, and planted their 
flag in the most gallant manner upon the ram- 
parts, where Shaw was shot dead ; while the rest 
were seized with a furious panic, and acted like 
wild beasts let loose from a menagerie. They 
came down first on the Ninth Maine, and then 
on the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and broke 
both of them in two. Portions of the Ninth and 
Seventy-sixth mingled with the fugitives of the 
Fifty-lourth, and could not be brought to the fort. 
They ran away like deer, some crawling upon 
their hands and knees. 

The Sixth Connecticut, Colonel John L. 
Chatfield, followed the Fifty-fourth, and made a 
furious charge. In spite of the most deadly 
fire, they leaped over the ditch, bounded upon 
the parapet, drove the Thirty-first North Carolina 
with the bayonet, and entered the south-east 
salient of the fort. It is a fact, (though Northern 
historians omit to mention it,) that this gallant 



94 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

regiment took possession of the south-east angle 
of the fort, and held it for three mortal hours. 
But it cost a terrible sacrifice of life. The sur- 
vivors fought with the dead bodies of their com- 
rades lying three deep around them. Finally, 
for want of support, they surrendered ; few, if 
any, of them being able to get out. 

General Strong exerted himself to the ut- 
most to push on other regiments in support of 
the heroic Sixth. He placed himself at the head 
of a battallion containing what remained of the 
immortal Seventh Connecticut, and to them he 
made his last appeal. 

Here Strong fell, mortally wounded, and the 
command of the column passed rapidly from one 
to another until every Federal colonel and lieu- 
tenant-colonel present at the fort had been killed, 
wounded or captured. When it finally broke, 
the ranking officer was Major Plimpton of the 
Third New Hampshire, who led its shattered 
fragments into the sheltering gloom. 

What the column of Strong failed to accom- 
plish, the column of Colonel Putnam was not 
likely to achieve. Colonel Chatfield was the sen- 
ior Colonel ; he had commanded a brigade be- 
fore, and was entitled to lead this second column ; 
but he waived his rank, declaring his preference 
to stand or fall with the Sixth. He had fallen, 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 95 

mortally wounded, before Putnam's column ad- 
vanced. The second charge was not less furious 
than Strong's. Putnam was killed almost as 
soon as he reached the fort ; but his colonels 
continued the assault unflinchingly ; falling back 
only when no possibility of success remained. 

Putnam's own regiment, the Seventh New 
Hampshire, Lieutenant Colonel Abbott, distin- 
guished itself greatly. The Confederates were 
moved to admiration by the resolute courage of 
the Forty-eighth and One Hundreth New York, 
Colonels Barton and Dandy, and of the Sixty- 
second and Sixty-seventh Ohio, Colonels Steele 
and Voris. 

It was near midnight when the last shat- 
tered regiment recoiled from this terrible carn- 
age ; and the Confederates poured upon their 
flying foes a murderous fire of grape and can- 
nister. It was a retreat oi unutterable horrors. 
Men fell from the ramparts of Wagner, some- 
times breaking their limbs by the fall. They 
rolled one upon another into the ditch, and were 
drowned in the water or smothered by their own 
dead or wounded comrades falling upon them. 
They dragged themselves upon their hands and 
knees over the hills and ridges of sand. 

To hundreds of poor fellows who lay, hour 
after hour, maimed and mangled, on the bloody 



96 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

beach before Wagner, and, piled one upon an- 
other, in the ditches around it, — with their bones 
broken and their wounds bleeding, — choking 
with thirst and writhing in agony, — praying, cry- 
ing, lingering, dying; — it seemed as if morning 
would never come, — as if Nature herself felt 
outraged, and denied the light of day to a planet 
presenting so ghastly a scene. Seldom, indeed, 
has the glad sun risen, or the sad sea sobbed, 
over so horrible a spectacle. Blood, brains, bow- 
els, bones, arms, legs, hair, fragments of bodies, 
black and white, all mingled together, with sand, 
mud, grass, water, patches of clothing, broken 
gun - stocks and gun-barrels, belts, bayonets, 
boots, shoes, and all the accompaniments of mil- 
itary art and life. 

The Confederates say they buried six hun- 
dred of the Federal dead upon the ocean beach. 
The wounded who survived were taken to prison 
hospitals in Charleston, where, as "Personne" 
wrote, their blood flowed " by the bucketful.'* 
The wounds were generally severe, being in- 
flicted at short distances, so that " amputations 
were almost the only operations performed." 

The ladies of Charleston, as might have 
been expected, were moved to many acts of 
kindness towards these suffering soldiers ; and 
their sympathy brought upon them the slurs of 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 97 

the local press as " troublesome and obtrusive 
persons in female garb," who ought to be ** im- 
pressed into service as nurses." 

Buried with his own sable soldiers, Shaw 
rests by the moaning sea, 

*' Like Scipio sleeping on the upbraiding shore." 

The time may come, when the opposite sec- 
tions of our restored Union will unite to erect 
here a monument to the memory of the heroes 
of both races, who fell on either side. Such a 
shaft would swell the heart and fill the eye of 
every departing and returning sailor. Pilgrims 
from afar would come to gaze upon it, and to lift 
their hats to it, and walk around it, and to be 
consecrated by meditating on its glorious mem- 
ories. Of such a monument who would not say, 
with Webster at Bunker Hill, *' Let it rise to 
meet the sun in his coming. Let the earliest 
light of the morning greet it, and parting day 
linger and play upon its summit." 

No detailed report, by regiments, of killed, 
wounded and missing, on the Federal side, 
has ever, to my knowledge, been published. 
The general reports vary — from 1,500 to 2,500. 

Among the killed were Colonels Putnam 
and Shaw, and Lieutenant Colonel Green of the 
Sixth Connecticut. Among the severely wound- 
ed were General Strong and Colonel Chatfield, 



98 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

(who died of their wounds,) General Sey- 
mour, and Colonels Barton, Jackson and Emery. 
Among the captured were Lieutenant Colonel 
Bedell of the Third New Hampshire, and Major 
Filler of the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania. 

The causualties among company officers 
were as fearful as among the field officers. 
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, (for example,) 
which went in under Colonel Shaw, came out, 
shattered and reduced one-half, under a boy 
lieutenant, with sergeants in command of its 
companies. "-•'■ 

The defence of Wagner was conducted with 
courage fully equal, and with military skill more 
than equal to the assault. The Confederate loss 
in killed, wounded and missing, was 174. Their 
greatest losses were incurred in their effi)rts to 
expel from the south-east salient the Sixth Con- 
necticut, where the Federal dead were "packed 
as thickly as sardines." Among their killed were 
Lieutenant Colonels J. C. Simkins and P. C. 
Gaillard, and Captains W. H. Ryan and W. T. 
Tatum, with other officers of superior merit. 

Here, too, the gallant Major Ramsay, law- 
yer and scholar, Grand Master of the South 

*In Siborne's History we read that, at Waterloo, 
even brigades fell to the command of lieutenants ; a hun- 
dred officers (including ten generals) having been killed, 
and five hundred wounded, on the side of the Allies, and 
still more on the side of Napoleon. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 99 

Carolina Grand Lodge of Masons, was mortally 
wounded — not, however, by the assailants, but 
by an accidental shot from one of the garrison."''*' 

When the flag of Wagner was shot down dur- 
ing the long bombardment, like another Sergeant 
Jasper, he lashed it to a mast and returned 
it to its place. 

The history of this encounter has not yet 
been written, by any body, with satisfactory ful- 
ness and accuracy. Such of the facts as have 
been preserved, have been embroidered with 
curious and absurd fictions. Mr. Greeley, for 
example, says, that, "after advancing a few hun- 
dred yards under a random fire from two or 
three great guns," the Fifty-fourth halted for 
half an hour, during which it "was addressed 
by General Strong and its Colonel !" The 
innocent historian had evidently read and with 
childlike simplicity believed, the story that 
Napoleon paused and harangued the Guard 
before the final charge at Waterloo. The fact 

*He was the first Master of Franklin Lodge, Charles- 
ton, in which it was my fortune, on taking up my 
residence there, to be initiated into the mysteries of sym- 
bolic masonry. It is remarkable as illustrating the uni- 
versality of this order, that in the elaborate preamble and 
resolutions passed by that lodge on the occasion of his 
death, there is nothing which might not have been 
adopted by any Northern lodge. 



loo LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

is, the Fifty-fourth did not arrive till the brigades 
had been formed for this assault. Hence it 
happened, that it was placed so strangely, form- 
ed in two lines, in advance of the right of the 
first brigade, which was formed in line by com- 
panies, at half distance. 

This glowing fiction probably arose from 
this fact : the step of the Fifty-fourth on start- 
ing was the "left oblique," and, naturally enough, 
these new troops crowded badly on the centre ; 
so that Shaw had to halt twice to ''dress ranks," 
before they took the double quick.* 

The only "address" given by Strong, at 
that time, was, "Forward, the Fifty-fourth" — as 
the only Waterloo "speech" from Napoleon to 
the Guard was, "Gentlemen, the road to Brus- 
sells."f No commander out of Bedlam ever 
thought of halting troops under fire to indulge 
in elephantine harangues or sesquipedalian 
orations. 

The best account of the assault on Wagner 
is that of "Personne" in the Charleston Courier ^ 

*If I criticise Greeley more than others, it is because, 
on the wliole, I like him better than they. Lossing mix- 
es the later incidents of this battle with the earlier 
events ; and Harper passes them over in silence. Better 
things may be expected in the forthcoming volumes of 
the Count of Paris, touching the last years of the War. 

^Messieurs — Le chemin a Bruxelles. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. loi 

which none of the Northern historians seem to 
have seen.-^ But, like every other narrative of 
the combat which I have read, it is disfigured by 
errors. It were well if each surviving regimen- 
tal commander made a separate report to the 
commander-in-chief, as is the custom in the 
Navy But some of them, (like Colonel Straw- 
bridge of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania,) would 
have little to report, that one would care to read. 

Admiral Dahlgren has left us a detailed re- 
port on the services of the Federal fleet at 
Charleston from July lO to September 8, 1863, 
which is accessible to all.f Whatever he has 
there omitted will doubtless be supplied in his 
memoirs now preparing for the press. 

Had Wagner been attacked on the loth, 
or I ith, with any thing like the force and reso- 
lution with which it was assaulted no the i8th, 
it might have been taken, and the lives of 
many hundreds of brave men saved. Many 
lives might also have been saved, had Putnam's 
brigade been pushed in earlier. It was ready 

*See Charleston Courier of July 20, 21, 22, 24, 1863. 
" Personne " was F. G. Fontane, who, like the Confeder- 
ate General Whiting, passed much of his early life in 
Lowell, Massachusetts. Both were pupils of the Lowell 
High School. Cowley's History of Lowell, p. 172. 

fSee Putnam's llecord, vol. 10, pp. 183-190. The same 
volume contains the reports of the Confederate command- 
ers, pp. 534-557. See also Gilmore's Operations &c. 



I02 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

and waiting for the word of command while 
Strong's brigade was getting " pulverized." 
Stevenson's brigade should also have been push- 
ed in to support Putnam. Greeley, Lossing, 
and the other historians, relying too much on 
Gillmore's account, omit to mention that this 
army was divided into three (not two) brigades, 
and that in consequence of Strong and Sey- 
more being Jiors dit combat, and Gillmore being 
too far in the rear, the third brigade received 
no order to advance till it was too late to 
save the battle. Gillmore should have posted 
himself at least near enough to the fort to know 
when Strong and Seymour fell, and to push in 
the supports in time. 

On Sunday morning while many of the 
Federal dead and wounded were still lying on 
the beach, the Admiral sent Flag Lieutenant 
Preston and Sergeon Duvall, under a flag of 
truce, to the Confederate General, offering to 
send his own surgeons to take care of the Fed- 
eral wounded. General Taliafero declined this 
offer. At a later period, the Confederates 
proposed that each government should send its 
own surgeons with medicines, hospital stores, 
etc, to minister to its soldiers in prison, but this 
was refused by the Federals. '•'■ 

*See the conclusion of the Vindication of the Confed- 
eracy against the charge of Cruelty to Prisoners. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 103 

Six days after the battle Wagner, the Fed- 
eral Steamer Cosmopoliton met the Confeder- 
ate Steamer Alice, under flags of truce, midway 
between the fleet and the batteries, and ex- 
changed 105 prisoners. While the exchange 
was making, the officers indulged in friendly 
conversation, and the Confederates, through 
their telescopes, scrutinized with curious inter- 
est the grim Ironsides, and her strange little 
turtle-backed consorts, the monitors. 

On the night of August 5th, a Federal 
picket launch, with Acting Master Haines and 
twenty men, was attacked by the Confederate 
Steamer Juno under Lieutenant Porcher, inside 
of Cummings Point. Ten of the crew jumped 
overboard, but two of them, after swimming 
two miles, became exhausted, and swam ashore 
on Morris Island, and surrenderd. The others 
continued swimming till they reached the picket 
ships, and were saved. The rest were captured. 

On August 21, General Gillmore, having 
mounted several heavy siege guns so as to com- 
mand the city, summoned General Beauregard to 
surrender ! Under the circumstances, Beaure- 
gard would have been excusable if he had couch- 
ed his reply in the prohibited word of the famous 
Cambronne, which Victor Hugo has almost sanc- 
tified in Les Miserables ; but he was too polite 



I04 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

for that. At first he thought of treating it as 
the demand of the sock-and-buskin hero, Gen- 
eral Bum. But upon the second thought he de- 
termined to treat it seriously, and ** fired the 
Southern Heart," with a letter denouncing Gill- 
more for not giving him more time to remove 
the women and children before shelling the city. 
Finally he refused to move an inch, or to send 
away either " chick or child." 

On the nighty of August 22, 1863, Sum- 
ter received one of those heavy bombardings 
which Admiral Dahlgren has included in the re- 
port already cited. The night was black with 
tempest. But by this time, the Navy had be- 
come familiar with the thunder of their heavy 
guns. Standing on the turret of the Patapsco, 
as the battle was about to begin, Captain Steph- 
ens recited to the officers around him, the whole 
of Bayard Taylor's " Crimean Episode," begin- 
ning, 

" Sing us a song," the soldier cried. 

The outer trenches guarding, 
While the heated guns of the camp allied 
Grew weary of bombarding. 

So General Wolfe recited Gray's Elegy, 
rowing across the St. Lawrence to climb the 
heights of Abraham, where he fought and fell 
the next morning. 

On the night of September 3rd, the Con- 
federate Major Warley, who, had been wounded 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 105 

during that day's bombardment, was captured 
with eight men, by the Federal pickets, while on 
his way in a boat from Morris Island to Charles- 
ton. 

By the sixth of September, Gillmore's par- 
allels and batteries had approached so close to 
Wagner as to ensure its capture at the next as- 
sault. All that day, a terrible bombardment was 
kept up, attended with many casualties to the 
Confederates ; and General Terry was preparing 
for an assault the next morning. But during the 
night Taliafero quietly evacuated Wagner and 
Gregg, and shipped his forces to the city, leav- 
ing Morris Island in possession of the Federals. 

A few nights before the evacuation, while 
the Confederate Steamer Sumter was transport- 
ing troops from Morris Island to the city, she 
was mistaken by Fort Moultrie for a Federal 
vessel, fired on and sunk. By this accident, five 
men were killed, others wounded, and twenty 
drowned. The rest numbering about 600 were 
saved by barges. 

The feat of Commodore Perry in transfer- 
ring himself and his flag to the St. Lawrence 
when the Niagara was destroyed during the bat- 
tle on Lake Erie, has been greatly applauded. ■•''■ 

*ror Perry's peculiar tactical methods and combina- 
tions, see Ward's Navaf Tactics, pp. 76-80. 



io6 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Captain T. H. Stephens, of the iron-clad Pa- 
tapsco, performed a similar feat during the great 
bombardment of September 8, 1863. Commo- 
dore Rowan of the Ironsids, fearing that the 
Patapsco had attracted too much of the enemy's 
fire, signalled to him to " Drop down below.' 
Whereupon, Captain Stephens coolly pushed off 
in his boat, pulled over to the Ironsides, and 
begged Rowan to let the Patapsco remain where 
she was. " Wait a moment," he said, ** and see 
how completely my guns command Bee." Com- 
modore Rowan waited, and Lieutenant Com- 
mander Bunce, the Executive Officer of the Pa- 
tapsco, put in a couple of most perfect shots — 
seeing which, Commodore Rowan immediately 
replied, " Captain Stephens, stay where you are ; 
you seem to have taken Battery Bee under your 
exclusive charge." 

Not a word can be said to belittle the gallant 
feat of Perry. But I have known Admiral 
Dahlgren again and again to move about from 
vessel to vessel during the bombardments of 
Charleston forts, and have myself accompanied 
him in his barge on more than one such occa- 
sion. 

On the night of September 8, 1863, a gal- 
lant attempt was made to carry Fort Sumter by 
storm. Major Stephen Elliott, who had relieved 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE, 107 

Colonel Rhett in command of the fort about the 
time when Gillmore reported that he had demol- 
ished it, made the following report : — 

"Having for several nights expected a boat 
attack, I had one-third of the garrison under 
arms on the parapet, and the remainder so 
posted as to reinforce with promptness. At i 
A. M. this morning I saw a fleet of barges ap- 
proaching from the eastward. I ordered the 
fire to be reserved until they should arrive 
within a few yards of the fort. The enemy at- 
tempted to land on the southeastern and south- 
ern faces ; he was received by a well directed 
fire of musketry, and by hcind-grenades, which 
were very effective, demoralizing him ; fragments 
of the epaulment were also thrown down upon 
him. The crews near the shore sought refuge 
in the recesses of the foot of the scrap, those 
further off in flight. The repulse was decided 
and the asault was not renewed 

"His loss is four men killed, two officers and 
seventeen men wounded, and fifteen officers 
and ninty-two men captured. We secured five 
stand of colors and five barges ; others were 
disabled and drifted off. One gunboat and Fort 
Johnson and the Sullivan's Island batteries en- 
filaded our faces, and contributed to prevent the 
renewal of the assault. Many of the shots 



io8 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

struck the fort. The garrison, consisting of the 
Charleston Battahon, behaved admirably ; all 
praise is due to Major Blake, his officers and 
men, for the promptness and gallantry displayed 
in the defence. Not one of my men hurt. One 
of our gunboats assisted during the fight." 

This gallant attempt to storm a " demol- 
ished" work has been the subject of repeated 
misrepresentation. Lossing says, ** a portion of 
the men of the squadron attempted the import- 
ant enterprise of surprising and capturing Fort 
Sumter, without Gillmore's knowledge!' Greeley 
says, " no notice was given to, and of course 
no cooperation invited from, General Gillmore.."'"'' 

Admiral Dahlgren says, in a narrative which, 
I trust, will yet be published : — 

" It was arranged that the columns should 
co-operate — that of the squadron moving outside 
of Cummings' Point, and that of the army from 
the inside. It was past midnight, on the 8th 
September, when a fine naval column of 450 
picked men, well officered, pushed rapidly at the 
gorge and South East faces, landed, and ran up 
the debris of the gorge wall. The enemy opened 
a rapid and destructive fire from above, while 
Moultrie and Johnson flanked with a fire of shells 
our boats and uncovered men. Thus the attack 

♦Lossing, vol. 3, p. 210. Greeley, vol. 2, p. 481. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 109 

on a fort which Gen. G. assumes he had demol- 
ished, necessarily failed. So much did I desire 
the expected co-operation of the land column, 
that I went in person to the scene of action to 
secure the connection, but it came not. Gen. 
G. says his troops were detained by low tide un- 
til after the naval attack had failed, which seems 
far from satisfactory in view of the fact that it 
was near midnight when Lieut. Preston returned 
from Gen. G. with the assurance that the con- 
certed action was understood and arranged." 

A part of the correspondence in relation to 
this joint assault has been printed in Gillmore's 
book ; the rest of it will probably appear in the 
Admiral's Memoirs, now in preparation by his 
devoted and accomplished widow. The follow- 
ing dispatch is all I need offer to vindicate the 
truth of history against the errors of Greeley 
and Lossing : — 

Sept. 8th. 
Admiral Dahlgren : 

I deem it of vital importance that no 
two distinct parties should approach Sumter at the 
same time for fear of accident. I will display a red 
light from the fort when taken — 1 ask you to do the 
same if your party mounts first. Our countersign is 
" Detroit." Let us use it in challenging on the water. 
(Signed,) Gen. Gillmore. 



no LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

Among the officers here captured were Lieu- 
tenant Commander E. P. Williams, who after- 
wards perished with the ill-fated Oneida ; Lieu- 
tenants S. W. Preston and B. H. Porter, who 
were killed at Fort Fisher, the former of whom 
was attached to Admiral Dahlgren's staff. 

Our historians have wandered far from the 
facts in their statements touching the commerce 
of Charleston pending our blockade. Whatever 
may have been the " misinformation" upon which 
Mr. Welles founded the statement in his report 
for 1863 ; Greeley, Lossing, Boynton, and oth- 
ers, writing two or three lustrums later, have no 
excuse for saying that "as soon as our iron-clads 
were within the bar," July 10, 1863, ''the harbor 
of Charleston was entirely stopped. "•■'" 

Mr. Greeley is here more deeply in error 
than others ; he attributes this result to " the 
terrible missiles of Gillmore." The fact is, block- 
ade running was not stopped, and never could 
be wholly stopped, without more vessels than 
Dahlgren ever had until after the fall of Wil- 
mington. There are six different channels to 
Charleston, of such configuration that vessels of 
light draught, taking advantage of dark nights, 
could elude the vigilance of the blockading fleet. 

*Boynton, vol. 2, p. 486; Lossing, vol. 3, p. 210; 
Greeley, vol. 2, p. 482. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 1 1 

Here is an advertisement from the Charles- 
ton Courier of December 17, 1863 : 

BLOCKADE STOCKS. 

BEE, 
CHICORA, 

COBIA, 

PET. 
For sale by H. H. DeLEON. 

461, King-street, opposite Citadel Square. 
The same paper contains a much longer 
advertisement from the Bee Company, of which 
the editor says : — 

** These gentlemen have already sold up- 
wards of ^700,000 worth of goods, which has 
saved to the purchasers at least ^150,000 to 
^200,000 on the previous ruling prices." 

The following paragraph from the Charles- 
ton Mercnryoi April 26, 1862, shows how boldly 
the blockade-running was carried on, before 
the establishment of the inside blockade by the 
capture of Morris Island ; it is a sample of many 
more : — 

"On Saturday last, nine sailing vessels 
among which were the schooners Wave and the 
Guide, started from this harbor to run the block- 
ade. Just as they were crossing the bar they 
encountered the United States gunboat Huron, 
Lieut. Downes, and other blockading vessels, 
which immediately opened fire. The Wave, the, 



1 1 2 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

Guide, and two others of the nine saihnsf vessels, 
were forced to yield. The crews were detained 
as prisoners on board the enemy's ships tintil 
Wednesday last, when those who had been taken 
aboard the Guide were landed on Gibbes Island." 

On November 13, 1863, the Mercury an- 
nounced the payment of handsome dividends by 
three blockade-running companies, one of them 
being $500 per share. 

During the whole of Dupont's command, 
the Charleston newspapers reported the arrival 
and departure of vessels from that port as res:- 
ularly and as openly, but of course not as nu- 
merously, as before the war. Even after Dahl- 
gren established his iron-clad fleet inside the 
bar, and posted his pickets every night in the 
throat of the harbor, between Sumter and Moul- 
trie, these arrivals and departures were from 
time to time announced, but more guardedly, 
except when the blockade-runner had been run 
aground, or badly shelled. 

We have been accustomed to berate the 
commercial classes of Great Britain for export- 
ino; oroods to the Confederate States, in violation 
of our blockade. But probably more goods were 
carried into the Confederate States through the 
instrumentality of merchants in the United 
States than by all the merchants of Europe. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 1 1 3 

More secrecy was observed by those residing in 
New York, who engaged in this business, than 
was observed in running the blockade of Mex- 
ico ; but it is none the less true, that, in the 
Civil War as in the Mexican War, the munitions 
of war were furnished in very large quantites 
to the enemies of the United States by citizens 
of the United States. Good old Horace Gree- 
ley used to say, not only in his , despondent 
hours, but also in his more hopeful moods, that 
the ideas and vital aims of the South were 
" more generally cherished " in New York than 
in South Carolina or Louisiana. '•"'■ 

But I am satisfied that by far the greater 
part of the importing and exporting business 
that was carried on in violation of our blockade, 
was carried on, not by clandestine merchants of 
the North or of Great Britain, but by the Con- 
federate Government itself, by the Bee Company 
of Charleston, and similar organizations at Wil- 
mington, Mobile, and other ports, together with 
the various mercantile firms of the South. 

The moral and religious sense of the South 
was not at all offended by this traffic. The 
Southern Christian Advocate applauded the Chi- 
cora Importing and Exporting Company of 
Charleston for bringing through the blockade, 

♦American Conflict, vol. 2, p. 8. 



114 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

gratis, twenty cases of Scriptures for the South- 
ern Bible Societies, when the freight thereon 
would have been $10,000; and also for prohibit- 
ing the importation of any spirituous liquors up- 
on their steamers. 

The attempt of Lieutenant W. T. Glassell 
to blow up the Ironsides with the torpedo steam- 
er David, October 5, 1863, was equal in audacity 
and adroitness to the more successful attempt of. 
Lieutenant Commander Gushing to blow up the 
Ram Albemarle. With his little cigar-shaped 
boat, he ran into the centre of the inside block- 
ading fleet, in the night, and steamed for the 
Ironsides. When hailed by the officer of the 
deck, he answered, " A boat from the Live Yan- 
kee — I am coming alongside," — at the same time 
shooting the hailing officer, '•'■ and exploding the 
torpedo which projected from his bow. Fortun- 
ately, the Ironsides escaped serious injury, and 
captured Glassell and one of his crew. The 
David and the rest of those on board returned 
in safety to Charleston. 

On November 4, 1863, four of our scouts 
effected a landing at the southeast angle of Fort 
Sumter. After reconnoitering in the darkness 
for a few minutes, they were hailed by the sen- 
try, but they escaped. 

♦Acting Ensign Charles W. Howard. He was buried 
on Morris Island. 



LIFE A FL OA T AND A SHORE. 1 1 5 

On the night of November 19, 1863, Gen- 
eral Gillmore made an attempt to surprize and 
capture Fort Sumter. He asked no aid from the 
Navy ; but Admiral Dahlgren, hearing of it, and 
anxiously desiring its success, ordered his pick- 
ets to cover the assaulting party. His private 
journal contains the following entry, dated No- 
vember 20th : — 

*' Last night the Army undertook to feel 
the force in Sumter, and sent 200 men in boats 
for the purpose. At 30 yards a dog barked and 
aroused the garrison, which fired, wounding two 
of our men. The rumor was, the night before, 
that an attack was to be made, and I ordered the 
monitors on picket to cover our men. At 3 in 
the morning I was aroused by a report that a 
musketry fire had opened from Sumter. A few 
shots were fired by the forts, and then there was 
quiet. Our party concluded that there were 200 
men in Sumter." 

The thoughtful care of the Admiral for the 
Army column on this occasion shines by contrast 
with the failure of Gillmore to support the 
Navy column on September 6th. 

On November 29, according to the Charles- 
ton newspapers, (which had published daily the 
number of shot and shell fired upon the city, 
since August 22,) the first fatal casualty occur- 



ii6 LEAVES FRO 31 A LAWYER'S 

red ; a negro being killed by a Parrott shell. 
Two days later, a Mrs. Hawthorn was mortally 
wounded by a fragment of shell. The use of St. 
Michael's spire as a target for the Federal artil- 
lery, provoked a blast from William Gilmore 
Simms, which began thus : — 

"Ay, strike, with sacrilegious aim 
The temple of the Living God ; 

Hurl iron bolt, and seething flame, 

Through aisles which holiest feet have trod ; 

Tear up the altar, spoil the tomb, 
And, raging with demoniac ire, 

Send down, in sudden crash of doom, 
That grand, old, sky-sustaining'spire."* 
On December 6th, the monitor Weehawken 
suddenly sunk at her anchorage off Morris Isl- 
and. Both Greeley and Lossing attribute this 
disaster to her hatches being left open when 
a gale came on ; but neither of them can have 
seen the testimony taken before the naval court 
of inquiry convened on that occasion, or that 
court's findings, though the entire record was 
printed. The Weehawken had probably been 
more seriously injured by getting aground, three 
months before, than was discovered at the time ; 
and her loss was probably caused by the parting 
of the hull proper from the "overhang," to 
which the hull was secured by rivets. The story 
of the gale coming on and filling her through 
* Charleston Mercury, December 2, 10, 1863. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 117 

the hatches, is without foundation. ■-•'•■ Thirty-one 
of her crew went down with her. 

Another * life" was lost, which " the dignity 
of history " has not deigned to notice. The crew 
of the Weehawken had a pet. (What man-of- 
war's crew has not 1) It was a noble chanticleer, 
who felt as much at home on this iron-clad as in 
his own native barnyard. He had many '* taking 
ways," and had done many things that his proud 
ship-mates loved to tell of. When the Atlanta 
was captured, and Captain Webb came aboard the 
Weehawken to give up his sword, chapman strut- 
ted to the ship's side, and ''took a look" at the 
captain ; he then mounted the pilot-house, flap- 
ped his wings, and crowed lustily three times ; 
giving '' the honors of war," in behalf of the 
United States, to the distinguished prisoner. 
When the Weehawken got aground one day, 
near Fort Sumter, and lay with her hull badly 
exposed, shelled by the Confederates, and in 
desperate peril of destruction, chapman paced 
the deck in pensive silence for four hours. 
But as soon as she had been got off, without 
loss, he mounted the pilot-house, and poured 
from his melodious breast a song of thanksgiv- 
ing and joy, which was reechoed from the walls 
of Sumter. Never did he hear the crew '' piped 
*Greeley, vol. 2, p. 484; Lossing, vol. 3, p. 211. 



ii8 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

to quarters," but his voice 

" Rose like an anthem rich and strong," 
to second the call. After having thus *' braved 
the battle and the breeze " during the whole 
cruise, this noble fowl was " sucked down " with 
the Weehawken, and perished miserably with 
the ship of which he was the pride and boast. 
** If he had been killed in one of them long bom- 
bardments," said an " old salt," who had survived 
him, " I shouldn't have felt so bad. That's what 
we all expect. But to see him fluttering on the 
waves and going down like a mere land-lubber ; 
it's too much for me to think of." Then lifting 
his sleeve to wipe the similitude of a tear from 
his starboard cheek, he added, " I tell you, Judge 
Cowley, on the word of a man, I'd rather 'a' lost 
half my prize money than have lost the cock of 
the old Weehawken." 



CHAPTER YI. 

Heroic Endurance of Charleston — Destruction 
of the Housatonic and the Maple Leaf by Torpedoes — 
Capture of the Columbine and the Water Witch — 
Dahlgren's Council of War — Attempt to Surprise 
Fort Johnson — Bombardment of the Batteries on the 
Stono — Battle of Honey Hill — Battle of Devaux's 
Neck — General Sherman at Savannah. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 19 

The war had lasted nearly three years, when 
William Gilmore Simms published, in Charles- 
ton, his famous Ode, " Souls of Heroes," the 
third stanza of which ran thus : — 

" There are thousands that loiter, of historied claim, 
Who boast of the heritage shrined in each name, — 
Sting their souls to the quick, 'till they shrink from the 

shame, 
Which dishonors the names and the past of their boast ; 
Even now they may win the best guerdons of Fame, 
And retrieve the bright honors they've lost ! " 
No wonder that many faltered, for the con- 
flict had involved terrible sacrifices of life and 
treasure ; and the dream of Southern Independ- 
ence was farther from realization than when An- 
derson hauled down his flag at Sumter. But the 
spirit of the proud leaders remained unbroken. 
Haskell, Cheves, Bee, Simkins, Ramsay, Ryan, 
Pringle, Gary, Blum, Frost, Harleston, and many 
more — the flower of the youth of Charleston — 
had fallen in the bloody struggle ; but others 
came forward with alacrity to carry on the con- 
flict. All ages and both sexes suffered. ** A fire 
consumed her young men, and her maidens were 
not given in marriage." 

" Our City by the Sea, as the Rebel City known," 
had earned her title to a fame hardly less than 
Tyre, Syracuse, Jerusalem, La Rochelle, Lon- 
donderry, Saragossa, or Genoa, for the lion- 



I20 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

hearted courage and resolution and the heroic 
constancy and endurance of her people. 

If some had become reckless and desper- 
ate, it was no more than happens in all wars. 
No such demoralization prevailed at Charleston 
as was witnessed at Wilmington, which (as Cap- 
tain Wilkinson observes ) " was infested with 
rogues and desperadoes, who made a livelihood 
by robbery and murder. It was unsafe to ven- 
ture into the suburbs at night, and even in day- 
light there were frequent conflicts in the public 
streets, between the crews of the steamers in 
port and the soldiers stationed in the town, in 
which knives and pistols would be freely used." 

On February 17, 1864, Lieutenant Dixon 
ran outside the Bar with the David, and repeat- 
ed upon the Housatonic the experiment of Glas- 
sell upon the Ironsides. The David was seen 
and hailed by the watch officer of the Housa- 
tonic, but it was too late. The David exploded 
her torpedo with fatal effect ; but both went to 
the bottom together. The boats of the Canan- 
daigua saved most of the officers and crew of the 
Housatonic ; but Ensign E. C. Hazeltine, and 
four others, one of whom bore the famous name 
of Theodore Parker, perished. Lieutenant Dixon 
and all who were with him shared the same fate. 

Many a man-of-war, and many a merchant- 
man, bears upon her books names that have been 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 121 

assumed, (as that of this great " heretic " preach- 
er probably was,) to conceal the true name, and 
to efface the memory of the man who bore it. 
How many life tragedies have ended thus ! I 
have known ship-masters, bankrupt merchants, 
broken clerks, unhappy husbands, members of 
the bar, physicians and clergymen, who had been 
beaten on the race-course of life, finding the 
shelter and oblivion, for which their hearts yearn- 
ed, in the Navy, shipping as George Washington, 
John Adams, or Benjamin Franklin, but more 
often and more humbly, as John Smith, John 
Jones or John Brown. 

The Federal Army Transport Steamer 
Maple Leaf, was also sunk by a torpedo, April 
1st, 1864, in the St. John's River, Florida. Nine 
days later, another steamer of the same sort, 
the General Hunter, was destroyed, and her 
quarter-master killed, in the same manner in the 
St. John's. 

If one David lay at the bottom of the sea, 
other torpedo-boats, built cigar-wise, were ready 
to carry on the work of destruction. The 
Steamer Memphis was attacked by one in the 
North Edisto, March 6th, and the Steam Sloop 
Wabash by another, off Charleston, April i8th; 
but both were beaten off. 

Other attempts were made at various places 
to capture or destroy vessels of this squadron. 



122 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

The Steamer Marblehead, attacked in the 
Stono, off Legareville, on Christmas Day, 1863, 
made a determined resistance, which, with 
the aid of the Pawnee and other vessels, was 
successful. But the attack on the little 
Steamer Columbine in the St. John's, May 23rd^ 
and that on the Water Witch, in Ossabaw Sound, 
June 3rd, were successful. Each of these 
vessels was suddenly boarded in the night by an 
armed force too powerful to be conquered, and 
became a prize to the Confederate States. 

Hundreds of casualties on both sides, 
occurred from the precision of aim of the sharp- 
shooters. While General Taliaferro was in 
command of Wagner, Captain Waring, of his 
staff, was shot dead by a minnie ball from one 
of our sharp-shooters, twelve hundred yards 
distant, while standing by the side of his chief. 
I have myself seen a sentry shot dead on Cum- 
mings Point by a minnie ball from Sumter, 
five-eighths of a mile distant. 

Frequent as these casualties were, hardly 
any one ever guarded against them. The Duke 
of Wellington, I may say, regarded such acts as 
murders. They never decide any thing. 

General Samuel Jones succeeded General 
Beauregard as Confederate commander of the 
Department of the South. On the Federal side, 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 123 

General John G. Foster relieved General Gill- 
more. Admiral Dahlgren having obtained 
leave of absence, Commodore Rowan took 
command of the squadron ad mteriin. 

On resuming his command in May, 186/^, 
the Admiral held a council of his nine iron- 
clad captains touching the feasibility of another 
naval attack on Charleston. All these officers 
expressed themselves ready and willing to en- 
gage in another attack with the greatest alacrity; 
but their judgment was against it. Only two 
voted in favor of an attack ; and these were 
among the youngest holding commands, — Lieu- 
tenant Commanders George E. Belknap and 
Joseph N. Miller ; while seven voted in the 
negative, one of the seven being Commodore 
Rowan. 

It this prudence did not suit everybody, it 
was enough for the Admiral, that it was approved 
at the time by the Navy Department and 
afterwards by Sherman. In a letter to the 
Admiral, at the close of the War, General 
Sherman wrote — what he has again and again 
said in substance in my hearing, both before and 
since — " I now thank you in person for not 
having made the hazardous experiment ; for 
when the time did come to act seriously, your 
fleet was perfect, well manned and admirably 



124 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

suited to aid me in the execution of the plan 
which did accompUsh the fall of Charleston, and 
more too." 

." In war," said Napoleon, " it is always and 
everywhere difficult to know the truth." Some 
time after this council was held, a clamor was 
raised because Charleston had not been taken, 
and two members of Congress called at the 
Navy Department to urge that the Admiral 
should be relieved by an officer of a more belli- 
cose mind. The question was put to these 
gentlemem by Mr. Fox, "Whom do you recom- 
mend for this {^lace V "Well : Commodore Row- 
an," was the reply. ''He is a fighting man ; he 
is there chafing on account of the backward- 
ness of the Admiral. Put him in command, and 
he will go into Charleston right off." Fancy the 
blank looks which these Congressmen exchane^- 
ed with one another, when Mr. Fox read to them 
the Admiral's dispatch inclosing the report of 
this council of war; by which it appeared that 
he had again and again changed the form of the 
question voted on, with the view to get from the 
council a vote in favor of an attack, while 
Commodore Rowan and the rest of these 
officers voted seven to tivo against the propo- 
sition in every form. One of the Congressmen, 
General Hawley, who fought like a Trojan under 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 125 

Stevens at Secessionville, frankly owned his 
mistake, and avowed his determination never 
again to meddle with matters out of his own 
sphere. 

Let no one draw from this an inference 
unfavorable to the great merit of the present 
gallant and honored Vice Admiral of the Navy. 
His record throughout the War, especially 
while in command of the Ironsides, is full of 
proofs of his undaunted courage and extraordi- 
nary professional skill. 

The Admiral afterwards told m^ that, if he 
could have got from this council a vote that 
would justify an attack, he would have made it, 
whatever the result might have been. I recalled 
to his attention the proverb, that councils of war 
never fight, and Orme's explanation of that 
proverb, — that "as the commander never con- 
consults his officers in this authentic form ex- 
cept when great dificulties are to be surmount- 
ed, the general communication increases the 
sense of risk and danger, which every one brings 
with him to the consultation.""^'^ 

I also cited to the Admiral all the ex- 
amples I had met with in history, where bril- 
liant victories had been won, on land and sea, 
in battles which had been fought contrary to 
the advice of such councils. 

♦Orme's History of Hindustan, vol. 2, p. 171. 



126 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

As I expatiated on the battle of Plassy, 
which was fought by General Clive after a 
council had voted 13 to 7 against fighting, and 
on which Great Britain founded her Indian 
Empire, — the Admiral answered me : — 

''And havent there been as many examples 
to the contrary ? There was Benham over 
here (pointing across Morris Island towards 
Secessionville.) He fought against the advice of 
his commanders ; and you know the result. My 
first business is to hold this coast. I am to run 
no risk of loosing this coast, for the sake of 
taking Charleston." 

At that time, the captains and pilots of 
blockade runners received from $1,000 to $5,- 
000, besides perquisites, for a single successful 
trip, occupying a week. Common seamen were 
paid $100 a month in gold, and $50 bounty at 
the end of every successful voyage. 

I had been of counsel, at an early period 
of the War, for the keeper of one of the 
Charleston hotels, and had succeeded in induc- 
ing Mr. Welles to release him from Fort Warren, 
where he had been incarcerated for running the 
blockade. And I should be sure of a welcome 
reception from him if I went to Nassau, and 
thence took passage in one of those long, low, 
narrow, lead-colored, short-masted, rakish-look- 



LIFE A FL OA T A ND A SHORE. 1 2 7 

ing blockade runners to Charleston. I thought 
that, with from $10,000 to $25,000 I could hire 
pilots, in Nassau or in Charleston, to pilot our 
iron-clads to the city, and I offered to try the 
experiment ; though well aware that, in case of 
discovery, I should die the death of a spy, like 
Major Andre and Colonel Hayne. 

If a blockade-runner could enter Charles- 
ton with a good pilot, so ( it seemed to me ) 
could our iron-clads, with one of the same 
pilots; no matter how many torpedoes might lie 
along the channel. But the Admiral had to 
look at the question from other points of view ;"■•'■ 
and the attempt was not made. 

According to the report of General Gillmore, 
"it was the constant and studied practice of the 
Confederate commanders to circulate exaggerat- 
ed and erroneous reports concerning the means 
of defence ; — and to such an extent and with 
such skill was this ruse made use of, that with 
few exceptions, neither the inhabitants of the 
city, nor the troops defending it, possessed any 
correct knowledge of the channel obstructions. 

'*Such a semblance of necessary and S3^stem- 

atic labor in their construction, management, 

and repair, was kept up, and such an affectation 

of secrecy concerning their real character and 

*DahlgTen's Maritime International Law, pp. 17, 78. 



128 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

of confidence in their efficiency was assumed, 
in order to keep all knowledge or suspicion 
of the huge fiction from us, that the blockade- 
runners themselves knew almost nothing of the 
really harmless character of the hidden obstruc- 
tions they were told to avoid." 

And General Gillmore contends "that there 
was nothing in the shape of channel obstructions 
or torpedoes that could prevent or seriously 
retard the passage of our fleet up to Charleston 
city or above it, in 1863 and 1864, by using the 
channel left open for blockade-runners ; that 
such channel obstructions and torpedoes as did 
exist, were not regarded by the enemy as at all 
formidable, or likely to afford them much protec- 
tion in the event of an actual attack ; and that 
at no time during the war was their condition 
any better, or their efficiency any more to be 
relied on, to delay the passage of a fleet, than 
when the city came into our possession in 
February, 1S65."- 

But if General Gillmore supposes that it 
was the submarine obstructions alone that 
prevented this council from favoring, or the 
Admiral from making, another attempt to cap- 

* Supplementary Report to Engineer and Artillery 
Operations against the Defences of Charleston Harbor, 
pp. 25, 27. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 129 

ture Charleston in 1864, he is greatly mistaken. 
How serious the torpedo and other submarine 
obstructions were, sufficiently appears in the 
affidavits and reports appended to Mr. Welles' 
Report for 1865, pp. 252-300. But these were by 
no means the only obstacles. 

The officers who sat in this naval council, as 
well as the Admiral, saw that, while Gillmore, 
with the aid of the Navy, was engaged in cap- 
turing Morris Island and destroying the offen- 
sive power of Sumter, the genius and rescources 
of Beauregard and his able lieutenants created 
other and more powerful defensive works inside 
of Sumter. So that Ripley could justly boast 
that his second aud third "circles of fire" were 
now more to be relied on than his first circle 
at the time of Dupont's attack. Pollard puts 
it well when he says, Beauregard ** had re- 
placed Sumter by an interior position, had ob- 
tained time to convert Fort Johnson from a 
forlorn old fort into a powerful earthwork, and 
had given another illustration of that new 
system of defence practiced at Comorn and 
Sebastopol, where, instead of there being any 
one key to a plan of fortification, there was the 
necessity of a siege for every battery, in which 
the besiegers were always exposed to the fire 
of others. "■••' 

*Pollard's Lost Cause, p. 437. 



I30 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

On June 13th, 1864, General Ripley, the 
Confederate commander of the First Military- 
District of the Department, sent a letter by flag 
of truce to General Schimmelfennig, the Federal 
commander of the District, inlorming him that 
five generals and forty-five field officers of the 
Federal Army, prisoners of war, had been con- 
fined in Charleston, in a part of the city which 
was. exposed, day and night, to the fire of the 
Federal guns. A copy of this letter was at once 
forwarded to the Admiral, who denounced it as 
" a threat to murder," for which Generals Jones 
and Ripley should be hanged, if they were 
taken. But we had as many places where Con- 
federate shells fell as they had where our 
shells fell ; and it was determined to retaliate.'-' 

The place finally selected by General Jones 
for the confinement of Federal prisoners of war, 
was the Charleston Race Course. It is strange, 
that while the horrors of Andersonville, Sauls- 
bury, Libby, and Belle Isle, have been recited, 
more or less at length, in scores of narratives, 
the hardships of the Charleston Race Course 
have been left unnoticed and unsung. 

Although the Federal Army and Navy at 
once threatened to retaliate, it was brutal busi- 

*See the correspondence on that subject, in Welles' 
Report for 1864, pp. 351-355. It is of ten-fold greater 
interest than much of the matter found in the histories. 



' LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 131 

ness ; and human nature shrank from it. Three 
months later, however, General Jones was 
notified by flag of truce that six hundred Con- 
federate officers, prisoners of war, had been 
confined, under the fire of the Confederate 
shells, in a stockade, near Cummings Point, 
Morris Island; that they had been provided with 
tents, and with supplies of food approximating 
as nearly as possible the rations allowed by the 
Confederates to our prisoners ; and that when- 
ever General Jones should remove the Federal 
prisoners from under our fire, and should give 
notice by flag of truce of that fact, these six 
hundred Confederate officers would be removed 
from under the Confederate fire. 

To the reproach of humanity, the Confed- 
erates persisted in keeping hundreds of our 
prisoners upon the Race Course at Charleston. 
" Here," wrote James Redpath, " upon an open 
field, without shelter from burning sun or bleach- 
ing storm, our poor boys were turned out to 
sicken and die. Their beds at night were the 
sods of the earth — their habitations only such 
burrows as they could excavate with their hands 
in the sandy soil. Two hundred and fifty-seven 
of these unfortunate heroes never left the en- 
closure alive, and were buried upon the spot 
where they threw off their mortal armor." Of 



132 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

course, the retaliatory stockade on Morris Island 
was maintained as long as the Race Course out- 
rage was continued. 

Early in the morning, on Sunday, July 4th, 
1864, two regiments of infantry, the One Hun- 
dred and Twenty-seventh New York, and Fifty- 
second Pennsylvania, with a detachment of sixty 
men from the Third Rhode Island Artillery, all 
under the command of Col. William Gurney, 
embarked in boats from Morris Island, hoping to 
effect a landing on James' Island, and to surprise 
and capture Fort Johnson and Battery Simkins. 
These works are about two miles nearer Charles- 
ton than Cummings Point. _ This movement 
was made in consequence of information that the 
Confederate garrison then on James' Island, had 
been reduced to a skeleton. It was a bold move- 
ment, and promised brilliant results. I could not 
resist the impulse to accompany the assaulting 
party as a volunteer, as one or two other naval 
officers did. But the embarkation of the troops 
was delayed two hours beyond the time assign- 
ed, and the tide had gone down, so that some of 
the boats got aground, and failed to reach James' 
Island. That portion of the assaulting party 
that reached the island was even more unfortu- 
nate. Colonel Gurney, of the New York regi- 
ment, without the knowledge of his command, 



LIFE AFL OAT AND ASHORE. 1 3 3 

remained on Morris Island, and in his absence 
the command devolved upon Colonel Hoyt, of the 
Pennsylvania regiment, who, however, seems not 
to have been aware of the fact. He was separ- 
ated from his command, and taken prisoner. 
Lieutenant Colonel Conyingham, upon whom 
the command now devolved, looked about for 
Colonel Hoyt, and became a prisoner himself. 
Then ensued confusion baffling description. 

One company of the New York regiment 
and the Rhode Island artillery-men landed un- 
observed within fifty yards of Fort Johnson ; they 
were soon discovered by the garrison ; but upon 
one volley being fired, some officer,(I could never 
learn whom,) gave the order to retreat to the 
boats, and thus this opportunity to capture these 
important works was lost. The Confederate 
force then on James' Island was small — some re- 
ports putting it as low as 150. Our loss in killed, 
wounded and captured must have exceeded the 
whole number of men in the two forts assailed; 
for we lost 137 enlisted men and six officers. 

At the late Mr. Greeley's request, I placed 
in his hands my notes of this well-conceived but 
abortive movement, to be used in his American 
Conflict. He seemed well pleased to get these 
notes, but probably never looked at them again. 
No mention is made of this affair in his book, 



134 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS ' 

nor in any other history of the war,''-' although, 
as Admiral Dahlgren said, '* it came near decid- 
ing the fate of Charleston." 

It is related that once in their agony for want 
of a good general, the Scots exclaimed, " O for 
an hour of Dundee." With Gurney lagging be- 
hind, with Hoyt and Conyingham captured, with 
no known commander to direct them ; with bat- 
teries opening upon them from all directions, — 
" cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them " 
— ^^in their supreme need of a general, our troops 
looked anxiously to the mound where Strong, 
Putnam, Chatfield and Shaw, had led their forces 
to the jaws of death ; and then made their way 
back to the place of embarkation. More fortu- 
nate than many others, I escaped, with only a 
a flesh wound from a shell. 

During the week following this attack on 
Johnson and Simkins, the monitors Lehigh 
and Montauk, and the Pawnee, McDonough and 
Racer were actively engaged in bombarding the 

*It* was reported in Mason's dispatches to the Neio 
York Herald of July 12, and more fully in the Herald of 
August 1st, which led to the convening of a court of in- 
quiry touching the conduct of Colonel Gurney. The 
findings of the court have not been made public; but 
General Schimmelfennig, in a conversation with me, con- 
firmed the strictures in the Herald. See letters and or- 
ders appended to Mr. Welles' Report for 1865, pp. 252, 346. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. 1 3 5 

batteries in the Stono. Admiral Dahlgren's dis- 
patches contain an account of these operations, 
which our historians pass by unmentioned. 
General Foster cooperated, three of his lieu- 
tenants playing important parts — Generals 
Hatch, Binney, and Schimmelfennig. The last 
named officer rose very high in the esteem of 
both Army and Navy. When the history of 
our Civil War is written as it should be, his 
services will ensure his renown ; albeit 
-his clissouant, consonant name 



Almost rattles to fragments the trumpet of fame." 
Some of the most interesting chapters yet 
to be written in the history of the War, are 
those relating the operations of sailors and 
marines when transferred to the shore, and 
organized as naval land batteries and sailor 
infantry. Two such batteries, with four guns 
each, were formed by Admiral Dahlgren in 
November, 1864 ; and they were supported by 
four half companies of sailor skirmishers, and 
four companies of marines. ■"••■ 

Commander Preble was placed in command 
of *• the Fleet Brigade," as this force was 
called ; and he has given an account of it in 
the Preble Family Memorial. Although it 

♦Dahlgren's Dispatches, with Welles' Report for 
1865, pp. 215—220, 346 ; Preble's Dispatches, Ihid, 
308-312. 



136 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

bore an important and distinguished part in all 
the engagements on the TuUifinny and the Coo- 
sawhatchie, this brigade is scarcely mentioned 
in the histories of the War. The object of 
these operations was to cut the Charleston and 
Savannah Railroad, and prevent the Confed- 
erates from sending troops to oppose Sherman 
in Georgia, by. employing them here. 

This object was largely accomplished, but 
not without considerable loss ; the Confederate 
commanders having a perfect knowledge of the 
country, while the Federal commanders knew 
nothing of it, and again and again mistook the 
way. The most unfortunate battle in which the 
Fleet Brigade participated, was that of fioney 
Hill, November 30th. 

Besides the Fleet Brigade, three brigades 
of General Foster's army participated, com- 
manded, respectively, by General Hatch, Gen- 
eral Potter, and Colonel A. S. Hartwell of the 
Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry ; together vv'ith 
two batteries of the Third New York Artillery, 
and two companies of the Fourth Massachusetts 
Cavalry. 

The Thirty - fifth United States Colored 
Troops led the assault, but stuck in an impassa- 
ble marsh which lay in front of the Confederate 
Battery. There, a galling fire of grape and can- 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 137 

ister, as well as musketry, was opened upon 
them, and they were forced to retire. 

Colonel James C. Beecher (half-brother of 
Henry Ward Beecher) followed; but his regi- 
ment, the Thirty-second United States Colored 
Troops, could not get near enough to produce 
much effect. So with other regiments: the Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts: the Fifty- 
sixth, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh, One 
Hundred and Forty-fourth, and One Hundred 
and Fifty-seventh New York; the Twenty-fifth 
Ohio; the Thirty-fourth and One Hundred and 
Second United States Colored Troops. 

Although necessarily fighting at a disad- 
vantage, with the enemy behind entrenchments, 
and themselves completely exposed, the Federal 
troops fought nobly during seven hours. Previ- 
ous to the battle there were three hours of hot 
skirmishing. 

The Confederate loss in this battle was in- 
significant. The Federal killed, wounded and 
missing, numbered 740. 

Among the wounded was the Rev. Colonel 
Beecher, and Lieutenant Colonel E. C. Geary. 

The best account of the battle of Honey 
Hill is that of Samuel W. Mason who was pres- 
ent, in the New York Herald of December 9th, 
1864. 



138 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Better success was achieved the following 
week at Deveaux's Neck. After two engage- 
ments on December 6th and 7th, the railroad 
was cut, and ten Confederate regiments, which 
otherwise might have made trouble for Sherman, 
were detained and kept on the defensive. 

It was the universal testimony of the offi- 
cers present, both of the Army and Navy, that 
the sailors and marines behaved admirably in 
camp and battle. It was particularly remarked 
by Army officers, that from the Fleet Brigade 
there were no stragglers. So far from our tars 
requiring to be forced to face danger and death 
in any form, it was necessary to compel them, by 
threats of punishment, to avoid exposing them- 
selves recklessly. Bayard Taylor said or sung : 
" The bravest are the tenderest; 
The loviug are the daring." 
I have seen many illustrations of this. But I 
have also seen many examples to the contrary. 
The insensibility displayed by our motley force 
of whites, blacks, mulattoes, and octoroons, on 
the Tullifinny and the Coosawhatchie, was re- 
volting. I have again and a2:ain heard our men 
carelessly shout, " You are gone up," to their 
comrades falling mortally mangled by their side. 
Familiarity with the horrors of war tends always 
to make men brutes. For example : after the 
battle of the Pyramids, (as Miot relates,) the 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 139 

whole way through the desert of Egypt was 
tracked with the bones and bodies of men and 
horses that had perished in those dreadful wastes. 
In order to warm themselves at night, the French 
army gathered up the dry bones and bodies of 
the dead which the vultures had spared, and 
made fires with them. By a fire composed of 
this fuel Bonaparte and his jaded Generals lay 
lay down in the desert of the Pharaohs to sleep!* 

General Sherman burned the city of At- 
lanta on November I5tb, 1864; and cutting 
loose from his base in the West, struck out 
boldly to find a new base in the South Atlantic 
Blockading Squadron and in the seaboard which 
that Squadron had captured three years before, 
and still held. In saying this I do no injustice 
to the Army in this Department, which, as 
General Schimmelfennig said, " could at no time 
be considered in any other light than as a landed 
force serving to render the blockade more 
effective," 

It has been argued that " the Grand 
March," was really a retreat ; that Sherman had 
moved too far from his base when he advanced 
from Chattanooga to Atlanta ; and could not 
have escaped destruction, had he remained 

*See Miot's Memoirs of the War in Egypt, and Rocca's 
Memoirs of the War in Spain. 



I40 LEAVES ORFM A LAWYERS 

where he was. President Davis was weak 
enough to call it a retreat and to predict for 
Sherman " the fate that befell Napoleon in the 
retreat from Moscow." 

But to my mind this argument only enhan- 
ces the magnitude of the movement. Has any 
captain since the days of Alexander ever con- 
ceived such a retreat? When, by any move- 
ment, a commander accomplishes all the sub- 
stantial result of a hundred victories, he has a 
right to call that movement by the term that 
best pleases him. 

Sherman had not been cavorting over 
Georgia many days before we learned from 
Confederate deserters that he was moving at 
the rate of fifteen miles a day, probably towards 
Savannah or Port Royal, but possibly towards 
Pensacola, or even Mobile. On the 25th, we 
learned that he had reached Milledgeville, 
and was '' smashing things." Exactly where 
Sherman would meet us, we knew, must be de- 
termined by circumstances. So the Admiral 
made preparations to meet him at Savannah 
River, at Wassaw Sound, at Ossabaw Sound, at 
St. Catherine's Sound, and also at Brunswick. 
Red, white, and blue rockets were sent up every 
night by our gun-boats at all these points, to 
inform the Army that the Navy was near. On 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 141 

December I2th,'''' Captain Duncan and two 
scouts, after having drifted down the Ogee- 
chee in a canoe, brought the Admiral a note 
from General Howard, of Sherman's right wino:. 
They left Howard on the evening of the 9th, and 
reached the Fleet in Ossabaw Sound on the 
afternoon of the nth. 

On the next day, General Kilpatrick, Sher- 
man's Chief of Cavalry, communicated with the 
Bark Fernandina, Acting Master Lewis West, 
one of our squadron, in St. Catherine's Sound. 

On Monday morning, December 12th, I 
was sitting as Judge-Advocate of a Naval Gen- 
eral Court Martial in the cabin of the Steamer 
Canandaigua, Captain N. B. Harrison, at Port 
Royal, trying Francis Anderson for stealing 
$600 from Walter Allen, Paymaster of the 
monitor Nantucket, (now editor of the Boston 
Daily Advertiser,) when the Mttle Steamer 
Dandelion ran in at full speed with Captain 
Duncan and General Howard's dispatch. 

This gratifying news spread like wild-fire. 
It was wig-wagged from ship to ship — handker- 
chiefs being used where flag signals were not at 

♦See the reports of Sherman and his generals in Put- 
nam's Rebellion Record, vol. 9, pp. 5, 6, 7, 16, 24, 166 
Also, the dispatches of Dahlgren and his commanders, 
appended to Mr. Welles' Report for 1865. Also Sherman's 
Memoirs etc. 



142 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

command. While the Admiral was dictating 
dispatches to Secretary Welles at Washington 
and to General Foster up the Broad River, to 
inform them of the fact, I sent the glorious 
intelligence by the Steamer Queen to the New 
York Herald, which must, of course, announce 
the great arrival of Sherman ** in advance of 
all other journals." 

The excitement, the exhileration, ay, the 
rapture, created by this arrival, will never be 
forgotten by the officers and crews of the Fed- 
eral vessels who then saw the beginning of the 
end of the war, and of their own wearisome 
service. ^ 

The Admiral at once started South in the 
Harvest Moon. As soon as the trial of Ander- 
son was finished, the flag of the Naval General 
Court Martial was hauled down ; and the 
Canandiagua followed the Admiral to the South. 
Fort McAllister fell on Tuesday ; and on Wed- 
nesday, December 14th, General Sherman him- 
self^ came on board the Harvest Moon in Was- 
saw Sound, and remained with us all night. It 
was arranged that Savannah should be attacked 
simultaneously by the Navy in front, and by 
the Army in the rear, and on the next day the 
Admiral carried the General to Fort McAllister, 
(which General Hazen's Division had captured 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 143 

two days before,) where General Sherman left 
lis to rejoin his Army.''-" 

Already the idol of the Army, this brilliant 
officer became equally the idol of the Navy. 
The General and the Admiral at once became 
personal friends and faithful and indefatigable 
coadjutors, and so continued to the end. The 
severities of the service and the loss of his son 
had told heavily upon the Admiral ; but from 
the day when he caught the light of Sherman's 
bright eyes as he stepped on boara the Flagship 
in Wassaw Sound, he seemed to grow younger 
and more buoyant every day. The increasing 
elasticity of his mind is manifest in all his dis- 
patches. Writing on that night to Secretary 
Welles, while the jaded General lay near him 
asleep, the Admiral said, — 'T cannot express to 
the department my happiness in witnessing and 
assisting in this glorious movement, so accept- 
able to our great country. My only wish now 
is to do my part." 

How faithfully he did that part, the 
General has repeatedly attested in words of the 
warmest praise. The affection which the Ad- 

tSeo Report of Secretary Welles for 1874. The dis- 
patches printed with the Reports of the Navy Depart- 
ment for 1864 and 1865, contain full accounts of many 
transactions not recorded elsewhere. This mine has 
been little worked by the historians. 



144 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

miral bore towards General Sherman was 
warmly reciprocated. No doubt, no suspicion, 
ever started on either side: their hearts were 
as guileless as they were brave ; and they were 
incapable of envy or jealousy. Most fit it was 
that, five years later, when the Admiral died 
suddenly upon his lounge, in Washington, the 
first that viewed his lifeless form (outside of his 
own family) was the illustrious General whom 
he met on that memorable day in Wassaw 
Sound. 

General Sherman came aboard again three 
days later, and proceeded with us in the Harvest 
Moon to Port Royal, where arrangements were 
made to reenforce the Army at the head of the 
Broad River with Carman's Brigade, with the 
view to get possession of the Charleston and 
Savannah Railroad, and prevent the escape of 
General Hardee and the Confederate Army in 
Savannah. On the night of December 20th, 
General Sherman again came on board the 
Harvest Moon, and proceeded with the Admiral 
first by the Flag-ship, and afterwards (when she 
grounded) by the Admiral's barge, to Ossabaw 
Sound. Just before reaching Ossabaw next 
morning, the Army Steamer Red Legs brought 
a dispatch from Captain Dayton, Sherman's 
adjutant, with news that Hardee had evacuated 



'' LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 145 

Savannah the night before, and retreated to 
Hardeeville. The Confederate commander saw 
the- scheme of Sherman to shut him up in 
Savannah and there capture him. So he 
''Folded his tents like the Arabs, 
And silently stole away." 

Early in the following evening, the Admiral 
received a note from Sherman, enclosing tele- 
grams from Howard, saying that the Confederate 
Steam Ram Savannah, Commodore Tatnall, 
lay out of Howard's reach, and adding — 

"Tatnall intends to run the Block- 
ade TONIGHT ! " 

Never had Dahlgren received a more sug- 
gestive message. Could it be, that the Confed- 
erate Navy had rallied its powers on the 
approach of death } Would Tatnall repeat with 
the Savannah the experiment of Webb with the 
Atlanta .? If he did, the Nantucket and the 
Passaic lay in his path, and the fate of Webb 
would probably be Tatnall's too. 

But war has its accidents. Might not a 
daring and experienced officer, like Tatnall, 
possibly pass our fleet "^ He might, — though the 
chances were strongly against him. Had he 
succeeded in running the blockade with the 
Savannah, he might have turned South and 
raised the blockade of every port as far as the 
Gulf of Mexico, by ramming and sinking or 



146 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER! S 

driving off every one of our blockading ships. 
What damage might he not afterwards have 
done, whatever course he had taken ? But 
— never mind what he might have done — he 
attempted nothing brilliant at all. He blew up 
both his iron-clads, and fled. 

On December 21st, the Admiral trans- 
ferred his flag to the Steamer Wissahickon, 
Lieutenant Commander Andrew Johnson, and 
we proceeded up the Savannah River, accom- 
panied by the Steamer Winona, Lieutenant 
Commander Dana, and two tugs. At four o'clock 
we anchored at Elba Island, a short distance 
below Savannah; and the channel obstructions 
making it dangerous to push the vessels up 
further we proceeded to the city in the tugs. 
The Army of Sherman had already entered 
Savannah from the rear. The General himself 
followed the next day, and established his head- 
quarters in the stately mansion of Charles 
Green on Macon street, opposite St. John's 
Episcopal Church. 

None of us will ever forget the delight with 
which we viewed the commercial emporium of 
Georgia, sitting like a fair crowned queen upon 
a high bluff, where the proud, lordly river bends 
with a graceful curve, and folds (as it were) his 
great arm lovingly around her. The poets, both 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 147 

great and small, of our squadron, poured out 
copious effusions on this occasion, which were 
printed by the flag-ship press and in the papers 
of the city. One of these, perhaps, might be 
spared by an indulgent critic. It began thus : — 

*' My heart with rapture greets thee, 

Savannah, O, Savannah." 
Hardee's rear guard had not reached the 
left bank of the river before General Leggatt's 
Division entered the city. A bright little Jewess 
living on one of the great squares of the city, 
said to me a few days later, — "When we retired, 
the tent lights of our soldiers glimmered in the 
square, the same as usual. The following morn- 
ing those tents were gone, and others pitched in 
their stead, occupied by blue-coated Yankees.'* 
Not wishing to give offence to the dark-eyed 
daughter of Abraham, I spoke of the city as 
*' occupied " merely by us. In an unguarded 
moment I used the word " captured." It had 
barely passed my lips, when she replied with in- 
dignant emphasis, " Our city has not been cap> 
tured, Sir. Your General Sherman only came 
here to save himself from being captured by 
General Hood. Our army was short of stores, 
and General Hardee, who is a personal friend of 
mine, has merely gone away for supplies. He 
will return very soon, and if your army don't get 



148 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

aboard your gunboats and leave this city, Gen- 
eral Hardee will take them prisoners every one.'' 

The city was barren of provisions, alike for 
man and beast. Sherman's foragers and his 
** bummers," who were excellent judges of horses, 
had picked up some thousands of them on their 
march. Many of these perished for want of food 
in Savannah ; many others were killed to save 
their board. For a time, there was danger of 
famine. But this peril soon passed ; the weather 
was delightful ; the scenery was beautiful ; rapid 
communication was opened with the North, and 
all were happy. The order that prevailed was 
remarkable. Savannah was as quiet as it ever 
was. No scenes of drunkenness, debauchery 
and ruffianism, such as soon afterward disgraced 
Wilmington, were witnessed there. 

The intercourse of the officers of the Navy 
with the officers of the Army while at Savannah 
was most cordial and joyous. 

Upon getting acquainted with Sherman's 
commanders, I formed a high opinion of almost 
every one of them. Their confidence in each 
other and in their chief was great, and it was 
well placed. Great as is Sherman's military re- 
nown now, I cannot but think that it will shine 
with a richer lustre hereafter. 

Though no Puritan, he has some of the traits 
of Oliver Cromwell. Historians say that Crom- 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 149 

well '* was accustomed to unbend among his offi- 
cers in a manner that none but a man with a 
kind heart and a good conscience could do ;" — a 
remark which I often recalled on seeing Sher- 
man's easy familiarity with the officers of the 
Navy as well as those of the Army. His hearty 
appreciation ot the alacrity with which the Ad- 
miral and all the officers of the fleet responded 
to all his desires, was often expressed. Calling 
at his head-quarters in Savannah, one morning, 
while he was planning his march through the 
Carolinas, I collected and took with me some of 
the best maps that we had aboard the flag-ship, 
of the region he was to traverse. *' Just the very 
thing I wanted," he exclaimed, with exhuberant 
joy. When I told him the Harvest Moon and 
the Pontiac had been placed at his service to 
transport his right wing to Beaufort, he exclaim- 
ed, •' Why, your Admiral anticipates all my 
wishes." 

That he is capable of unbounded wrath. 
Secretary Stanton, General Halleck, and many 
others, learned to their sorrow. But I never, 
except once, saw him exhibit any but the noblest 
and pleasantest, ay, the sweetest, traits. Even 
his most serious hours were irradiated with 
flashes of gaiety that recalled the traditional 
elan of Napoleon. 



ISO LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

The time, the only time, when I saw him 
displeased, was when he received news of the 
manner in which Butler *' craw-fished off," C^s 
Sherman expressed it,) after landing at Fort 
Fisher. In consequence of the failure of Butler 
on that occasion, it was doubtful, for some days, 
whether Sherman's army would not be ordered 
to proceed to North Carolina by sea, and thus 
be prevented from cutting their expected swath 
through South Carolina. 

One reads with surprise the remark of the 
Rev. Dr. Boynton, that, although " much impor- 
tant service was performed " by the Navy, 
about this time, '* particularly at Charleston and 
Savannah," yet the limits of his work do not 
allow ** more particular mention " of that service. 
One wonders why it is that ** the assistance which 
the Navy rendered the army of Sherman, after 
it reached the sea, cannot be adequately pre- 
sented in " The History of the Navy during the 
Rebellion." Where else should one look for it — 
especially when all the compilers of more gen- 
eral narratives pass it over almost in silence ? 

The bombarding of Charleston and its de- 
fences continued intermittently, month after 
month, each day's operations being a repetition 
of the last. I here give the record of one day, 
as a sample of hundreds : — 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE, 1 5 1 

On January 29th, 1864, 156 shots were 
fired at the south angle of Fort Sumter, 139 of 
which struck. The bombardment began at day- 
light and ceased at dark. One hour's work 
repaired the damage which the fort sustained 
during the day. In the afternoon the flagstaff 
was shot away ; and the following account of the 
replacing of it is from a journal kept by a 
Confederate officer in the fort : — **it was first 
replaced upon a small, and afterwards upon a 
larger staff by Private F. Shafer, Co. *A,' Lucas 
Batallion, who stood on the top of the traverse, 
and repeatedly waved the flag in sight of the 
enemy. He was assisted by Corporal Brassin- 
ham and Private Charles Banks of the same 
corps, and by Mr. H. B. Middleton of the Signal 
Corps, who was acting as adjutant of the post in 
the absence of the regular officer. They were 
exposed to a rapid and accurate fire of shells. 
At the close of the scene, Shafer, springing from 
the cloud of smoke and dust of a bursting shell, 
stood long waving his hat in triumph. It was 
a most gallant deed, and the effect upon the 
garrison was most inspiring." 

The Christmas holidays brought to the 
Admiral at Savannah, information from Captain 
Scott, senior naval officer off Charleston, that 
Commodore Tucker, the commander of the Con- 



152* LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

federate naval forces in Charleston, meditated a 
raid on the blockading fleet with his three Iron- 
clads, Chicora, Palmetto State, and City of 
Charleston, assisted by several torpedo boats 
like the David. It certainly would have been 
creditable to Tucker to have made one more 
effort to enhance the fame of the Confederate 
Navy. If he had not destroyed or beaten off 
the blockading fleet, he could, perhaps, have 
run the blockade, stood oat to sea, and fought 
a gallant fight with such wooden steamers as 
pursued him. But while he meditated, the 
Admiral reenforced the fleet off Charleston; and 
by New Year's Day, no less than seven of the 
turtle-backs lay ready to give Tucker a warm 
reception. The result was, no raid was at- 
tempted. 



CHAPTER TIL 

Fort Fisher — Death of Preston and Porter — 
Loss of the Patapsco by a Torpedo — Bon Mot of 
Farragiit — Destruction of the Dai Ching — Occupa- 
tion of Charleston and Georgetown — Captain Belk- 
nap's Memorandum — Charleston Prizes — The last 
of the Blockade-Runners. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE, 153 

While General Sherman remained at Sav- 
annah, and the Admiral's flag-ship lay in the 
river below, I had my last opportunity to meet 
Lieutenant Preston, formerly of Dahlgren's 
staff, who, after being captured at Sumter and 
subsequently exchanged, had been attached to 
the staff of Admiral Porter. I made a visit to 
tlie fleet off Wilmington, running up the coast in 
the prize Julia, The weather was extremely 
bad, and we encountered a gale which would 
probably have been fatal to our rickety craft, 
had it not been "on our quarter," or behind us. 

The Julia lay low in the water ; and with her 
convex deck which covered her half-way from 
her stem to her waist, she cut through the 
waves instead of leaping over them. The 
strain on her was fearful. She shivered in 
every part, and could not have shaken worse if 
she had had a violent attack of St. Vitus' 
Dance. I was never more impressed with the 
awe, the power, and the mystery of the Sea, 
than when tossed about in this fragile ship, 
which seemed ready at any instant to break in 
two or in three and leave us to the mercy of the 
pitiless storm. Still, perhaps, it is this awe, this 
power, this mystery, which lends to the Sea its 
most powerful attraction. Somebody says — 

Strip this old world of all its myi^tery, discover its 
last and uttermost secret, and I am sure I should 



1 54 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

find it a stupid and dreary place to live in. 1 believe 
in God, not because I know him, but because I do not 
know him ; because he is mysterious, the profound, 
the infinite ; because he is ever and forever Unknown. 
If my thought once could capture him and make him 
its prisoner, it would immediately tire of him and 
seek for a greater. Any thing that we can draw a 
circle around straightway becomes no longer a goal, 
but a point of departure. Hence, then Jts I stand 
before Old Ocean, I hail it as a type of the infinite. 
My soul revels in its vastness. Thankful for all it 
reveals, T am still more thankful for all that it only 
suggests. Here I have that sense of inward expan- 
sion, of soul-quickuing, of slow up-climbing and out- 
reaching of thought, which is always the eff'ect of 
standing in the presence of any great, grand, inspir- 
ing object in Nature or in art. No wonder sailors 
are superstitious. The sea is more than they can 
understand, familiar as they are with it. It speaks to 
them in an awful voice ; it deals with them in most 
impressive ways. It is at once their cradie and their 
grave. 

At length, the storm ceased, and before we 
reached Porter's flag -ship there was a great 
calm. My recollections of that visit are most 
pleasant ; though saddened by the reflection that 
I shall never again see, on this earth, my gallant 
friend, Preston, nor his gallant shipmate. Porter, 
who was his comrade in the attack on Sumter, 
his comrade in the Confederate prison, his com- 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. \ 5 5 

rade in the fleet under Admiral Porter, and 
finally his comrade in death at Fort Fisher. As 
I was about to proceed to Fortress Munroe, 
Preston said, " Call and see us on your way 
back. We'll take a walk through the city to- 
gether." I replied, " I hope we shall, but you are 
going on another forlorn hope, (alluding to the 
assault on Sumter, and the expedition with the 
powder-boat, as well as to the part which he was 
soon to take in the second assault on Fort 
Fisher ;) and God alone knows how it will end." 
' Well, it's a fact, "'he said, ^' that both of us have 
had poor luck in volunteering to do more than 
our own particular duty. You had your leg 
smashed, and I had to rust in a rebel prison. 
This thing that we are going into at our next 
attack, is really soldiers' business, and not just the 
thing for sailors ; but I hope we shall come out 
all right. One thing . I can» tell you : we shall 
take Fort Fisher next time, whatever may be- 
come of me. For myself, I feel a good deal like 
Byron when he said, 

' Here's a sigh for those who love me, 
And a smile for those who hate ; 

And whatever fate's above me, 
Here's a heart for any fate.' " 
"That's well put, Preston," I rejoined; "but 
there is another verse of Byron's — the last he 
ever wrote — which comes to my mind just now : 



156 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

* Seek out— less often sought than found — 

A soldier's grave, for thee the best ; 
Then look around, and choose thy graund, 
And take thy rest.' " 
Here Lieutenant Porter joined us. Mutual good 
wishes were exchanged, and we parted — never 
to meet again this side immortality. On the fif- 
teenth of that month, (January, 1865,) Preston 
and Porter led a column of fourteen hundred 
sailors and marines in an assault on the sea-face 
of P'ort Fisher — a work calling for a column of 
from six to ten thousand men ; — Fort Fisher fell, 
but both these brave officers fell with it. 

Preston possessed the elements of a great 
commander. He was loved and admired by all 
who knew him.--' I shall not forget the cheerful 
tones of his invitation : " We'll take a walk 
through the city together." They rang in my 
ears when, a few months later, I did ** take a 
walk through the city " of Wilmington. Though 
alone, I felt that I was not alone ; and if the 
souls of heroes, ascended to glory, ever return 
to the scenes of their earthly life, then I know 
that Preston was indeed present with me ; and 

*One of his admirers wrote an appreciative ode on 
him in the Army and Navy Journal, beginning, 

" Fallen at a stroke, and in an hour forgot ! 
O, brave young spirit, can this be the lot 
Of all that great ambition that would soar 
Above all heights that men had reached before?" 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 157 

the interest that I felt in that city was doubled 
by the thought that it was for this that Preston 
had died. 

In anticipation of another naval attack on 
Charleston, the Confederate Torpedo Corps 
laid many new torpedoes along the channel by 
which our vessels must pass, if they attempted 
to reach the city. On the night of January 15th, 
the monitor Patapsco passed over one of these 
newly laid torpedoes, which exploded under her, 
sending her to the bottom with eight officers 
and fifty-four men. One old boatswain who sur- 
vived the loss of this vessel, grimly remarked, as 
he came on board the flag-ship, with his clothes 
dripping wet, ** We were told to dredge for 
torpedoes, and nobody need cry because we 
found one." A remark not unworthy to be brack- 
etted with the following boTi mot of Admiral 
Farragut. When he was fighting his great 
battle below New Orleans, one of the best of 
his ships, the Mississippi, was badly rammed 
by the Confederate Ram Manassas. The 
smashing which she received was fearful: but 
Farragut merely remarked, Yoil cant make ome- 
lettes without bi'eakijig eggs! 

On January 26th, the steamer Dai Ching got 
aground in the Combahee, exposed to the fire of 
a Confederate battery. She was courageously 



158 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

defended by Lieutenant Commander J. C. Chap- 
lin and all his officers and men for seven hours, 
during which she was struck upwards of thirty 
times, and her decks shot through in seven 
places; she was destroyed. Acting Ensign Frank- 
lin S. Leach, commanding the tug Clover, having 
disobeyed positive orders of his superior officers, 
and deserted his duty during the combat in which 
the Dai Ching was lost, was at once relieved of 
his command, placed under arrest, and turned 
over to me for trial by a Naval General Court 
Martial. The case was clear and the offence 
grave. But President Lincoln had often ex- 
pressed his unwillingness to approve a sentence 
of death for offences committed in the Navy ; 
and the conduct of the accused had previously 
been good. The sentence of Leach was dismis- 
sion from the service and five years' confinement 
at hard labor in the penitentiary ; and it was 
approved by Secretary Welles. A part of it was 
afterwards remitted by President Johnson. 

After the occupation of Fort P'isher and 
Wilmington, Charleston alone remained accessi- 
ble to blockade-runners ; and although a portion 
of Porter's fleet was transferred to Dahlgren, 
and the blockade made tighter than ever, the 
necessities of the Confederate Army prompted 
those engaged in this business to run the most 



LIFE AFL OAT AND A SHORE. 1 59 

desperate risks ; and, for a time, Maffit, Wilkin- 
son, and others of the most noted blockade run- 
ners, turned their eyes towards Charleston. 

On February ist, Captain Maffit in the Owl, 
Captain Wilkinson in the Cameleon, (formerly 
the noted Tallahasse,) together with the Chicora, 
the Carolina, and the Dream,^left Nassau with 
supplies for the army of General Lee. "The proud 
army which, dating its victories from Bull Run, 
had driven McClellan from before Richmond, 
and withstood his best effort at Antietam, and 
shattered Burnside's host at Fredericksburg, and 
worsted Hooker at Chancellorsville, and fought 
Meade so stoutly, though unsuccessfully, before 
Gettysburg, and baffled Grant's bounteous re- 
sources and desperate efforts in the Wilderness, 
at Spottsylvania, on the North Anna, at Cold 
Harbor, and before Petersburg and Richmond," 
was actually in peril of famine, •*'•■ and well de- 
served these efforts for its relief. 

The Stag and Charlotte were captured ; the 
Owl had a shot through her bows, and went 
back ; the Chicora got in and out again, and re- 
turned to Nassau on February 23, with news of 
the evacuation of Charleston. " As we turned 

*Americau Conflict, vol. 2, p. 745. Here it is that the 
generous Greeley, laying down pen and spectacles, and 
waving aloft his historic white hat, wafts to the Confed- 
erate Army a proud and tender farewell. 



i6o LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

away from the land," says Wilkinson, with a 
touch of real pathos, " our hearts sank within 
us, while the conviction forced itself upon us, 
that the cause for which so much blood had been 
shed, so many miseries bravely endured, so many 
sacrifices cheerfully made, was about to perish 
at last." 

General Sherman moved like a thirty-day 
clock. His march through Georgia occupied a 
month ; he staid at Savannah a month ; he ca- 
vorted through the Carolinas in a month. The 
incidents of his advance through the Carolinas, 
far more important than his march through 
Georgia, have been recorded in a terse and 
graphic style in Sherman's own Memoirs, and 
need not be repeated here. 

By February 7th, Sherman had reached 
Lowry's, and he wrote to Dahlgren in cypher : 
''Watch Charleston close. I think Jeff. Davis 
will order it to be abandoned, lest he lose its 
garrison as well as guns." 

Beauregard, who had, for the third time, 
been placed in command of this Department, 
viewed the situation as Sherman did. Hardee, 
who had succeeded Ripley in command of the 
Charleston District, concurred with Beauregard. 
But Davis took a different view, and was incens- 
ed at Beauregard and Hardee for evacuating 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. i6i 

Charleston. General Sherman gave the Con- 
federate President credit for more military sa- 
gacity than he really possessed. 

General Foster had suffered so much from 
an old wound, that he became unfit for active 
service, and on February 9th, he was relieved by 
General Gillmore. The manner in which Gill- 
more writes, in his supplement, of the move- 
ments made by the army in his Department, as 
well as by Admiral Dahlgren's fleet, in coopera- 
tion with Sherman, is misleading. None of these 
movements were serious. They were all feints. 
The advance of Hatch's brigade towards Charles- 
ton along the line of the Charleston and Savan- 
nah Railroad ; the advance of Potter's brigade, 
and of Captain Stanley's fleet up Bull's , Bay ; 
the advance of the Ottowa and Winona on the 
Combahee ; the operations of the Pawnee and 
Sonoma on the Togadoo and Wadmelaw ; the 
bombarding of the batteries on the Stono by the 
Lehigh, Wissahickon, McDonough, Smith and 
Williams ; in a word, all that was done in aid of 
Sherman, was done, as Sherman expressed it, 
"just to make the enemy uneasy on that flank," 
and prevent the concentration of his forces 
against Sherman's army. 

Some of the incidents of the day when 
Charleston was ** repossessed," have been relat- 



1 62 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

ed by Greeley and by Lossing,-'' but none of the 
historians of the War relate the movements of 
our fleet on that day. Captain George E. Belk- 
nap, who commanded the advance picket mon- 
itor, Canonicus, on the night of February 17th, 
furnished me the following : — 

'* U. S. S. Canonicus, Port Royal, S. C. 

Memorandum for yiidge Cowley concerning the 

Evacuation of Charleston. 

On the night of February 17th, 1865, the 
monitor Canonicus had the advance picket duty,, 
supported by the monitor Mahopac and several 
tugs and picket boats. The wind was fresh from 
the N. W. Throughout the entire night the army 
and naval batteries on Morris Island kept up a 
heavy fire on the rebel batteries on Sullivan's 
Island, to which the rebels replied by an occa- 
sional gun from Moultrie during the first watch. 
Heavy explosions were heard in the direction of 
James' Island. Towards morning, heavy fires 
broke out in the city, and explosions occurred 
from time to time. At break of day, all the tugs 
and picket boats, with the exception of the tug 
Catalpa, returned to the bar anchorage. 

About 6.30, a. m., the Canonicus got under 
way, and steamed up the channel towards Fort 
Moultrie, the Mahopac and the Catalpa follow- 
♦Greeley, vol. 2, p. 702 ; Lossing, vol. 3, p. 464. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 163 

mg ; but the air was so hazy, and so filled with 
smoke, that only a dim outline of the city and 
the adjacent islands could be seen. About 7.30, 
a. m., the sun cleared the atmosphere a little, 
and the Canonicus approached to within long 
range of Moultrie, and threw two shells into that 
work, being, as events afterwards demonstrated, 
the last hostile shots fired in the siege of Charles- 
ton. These shots eliciting no response, a tug 
was immediately despatched to Captain Scott, 
senior officer present inside the bar, to inform 
him that no movement was discoverable on Sulli- 
van's Island. The rebel flag was still flying there, 
however, as well as on Castle Pinckney, Fort 
Marshall, and in the city ; and somie twenty min- 
utes after throwing the shells into Moultrie, a 
magazine blew up in Battery Bee. Judging from 
these indications that a party of rebels still re- 
mained on the island to complete the destruction 
of their stores and magazines, it was not deemed 
prudent to risk a boat's crew on shore until the 
state of affairs was better known, nor, (with the 
recent fate of the Patapsco staring us in the 
face,) was it deemed justifiable to risk the 
Canonicus in a further reconnoisance up the 
channel. 

Soon after the explosion in Battery Bee, all 
hands were piped to breakfast, and the Canon- 



i64 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

icus steamed slowly down towards Wagner Buoy;, 
passing the Mabopac on our way down. When 
nearly down to Wagner Buoy, an Army boat was 
observed to push off from Cummings' Point, and 
pull in the direction of Sumter ; and a few min- 
utes later, a boat, showing a white flag, was dis- 
covered pulling over from Sullivan's Island. The 
Canonicus was immediately put about, and was 
soon steaming up the channel again at full speed. 
A boat was also manned, and armed, and sent in 
charge of Acting Ensign R. E. Anson, to land 
on Sullivan's Island, and bring off the rebel flag, 
flying on Moultrie, if possible. In the meantime, 
the Army boat and a boat from the Mahopac 
had communicated with the boat carrying a flag 
of truce, and now all three boats were pulling 
for the coveted prize — the Moultrie flag. The 
Army boat had the start, however, and after a 
hard pull reached the beach a few lengths ahead 
of the other boats. Mr. Anson then changed 
his course, and landing at Fort Beauregard, 
hoisted the national colors on that work ; the 
Mahopac's boat, pulling in the opposite direc- 
tion, soon put the flag on the flag-staff of Battery 
Bee. Slow-matches, leading into all the princi- 
pal magazines, had been fired, but all, with the 
exception of the one applied to the magazine at 
Battery Bee, failed to go ofl". 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 165 

While this exciting scene was being enacted, 
another boat pushed off from Battery Gregg, on 
Cummings' Point, filled with our soldiers, who, 
in a few minutes, occupied Sumter, and placed 
the flag again on the ruins of that work. As the 
officer jumped ashore with the colors in his hand, 
the crews of the Canonicus and Mahopac joined 
with the Army in nine rousing cheers at the glo- 
rious termination of all their trials and discom- 
fitures, anxieties and hard work, at this fountain- 
head of treason and rebellion. A little later, 
the tug Catalpa steamed into the harbor, and 
took possession of Mount Pleasant Battery, while 
a boat from the Catskill landed at Battery Mar- 
shall. By this time Captain Scott had arrived at 
the front, and about one o'clock the Admiral ar- 
rived, and went up to the city in the Harvest 
Moon. The evacuation of Sullivan's Island 
must have been very hurriedly conducted, as the 
guns and amunition were left in perfect condi- 
tion, very few of the former being spiked. In 
some of the batteries, cartridges were found ly- 
ing on the gun carriages, and projectiles imme- 
diately under the muzzles of the guns, as though 
they had been abandoned in the act of loading. 

The last shot fired at the naval branch of 
the seige, was fired from a rifled gun in Moul- 
trie, at the Canonicus, on the 4th of February. 



1 66 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

The projectile was an eight-inch shell, and struck 
the ship just abaft the smoke-stack, explodinp^ 
on the impact, but doing no other harm than cut- 
ting away a boat davit. 
May 12, 1865. 

GEORGE E. BELKNAP." 
Landing on Sullivan's Island, some time af- 
ter, I found silence, solitude and desolation on 
every side. I examined all the fortifications, not 
forgetting the solitary grave of Osceola ; and 
then, like the priest in the Illiad, I 

'' Silent went to the billowy beach of the vast and 
voicefiil sea." 
Gazing on the wrecks, old and new, of blockade 
runners, strewn all along the beach, and on the 
many deserted works of defence, hearing no 
sound save the melancholy plashing of the waves, 
I thought of the awe-inspiring scene which lives 
forever on the canvas of Tintoretto — showing 
the earth, desolate and disordered, as it may ap- 
pear when the race of man shall have passed 
away. 

Passing up the channel, we gazed intently 
through our glasses upon the fortifications form- 
ing the second and third circles of fire, of which 
we had heard so much ; pilotted by a pilot lately 
captured from a blockade-runner, whom the 
Fleet Captain threatened with immediate death 
if he ran us upon a torpedo ; and, finally, with a 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 67 


tumult of conflicting emotions, we landed on the 

wharf safely. 

And thus, after a siege which will rank 
among the most famous in history, Charleston 
became ours. •' A scarred city," it was, as Pol- 
lard well says, " blackened by fire, with evidences 
of ruin and destruction at almost every step." 
All the aspects of Nature were delightful. The 
warm sunshine, the fresh air, the foliage of the 
wild orange, the palmetto, the roses in bloom, 
the violets, the geraniums, &c., were as delight- 
ful as when Macready landed in Charleston, 
twenty-one years before. '•■' He says, " The white 
houses, with their green verandahs and gardens, 
were light and lively to me, and the frequent 
view of the river afforded olten a picturesqe ter- 
mination to the street." 

But the grass was growing in the deserted 
streets, and scarcely a white face was to be seen. 
To the Afric-Americans, it seemed as if the 
trumpet of Gabriel had really sounded, and the 
"year of jubilee" had come. They went into 
ecstacies as they thought that, at last, at last, 
they were free. Never, while memory holds 
power to retain anything, shall I forget the thrill- 
ing strains of the music of the Union, as sung 
by our sab!e soldiers when marching up Meeting 
*Macready's Eeminiscences and Diaries, p. 539. 



i68 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

street, with their battle-stained banners flapping 

in the breeze, their black skins shining and their 

white eyes glaring with wild delight ; — 

" Softening AVith Afric's mellow tongue 
Their broken Saxon words." 

The conduct of the IVTayor of Charleston 
was not what would have been expected from an 
experienced lawyer and a gentleman of culture 
like Mr. Macbeth. He neither called the city 
council together, like the Mayor of Savannah ; 
nor came out to meet the Federal forces, like 
the Mayor of Columbia. He merely sent "two 
aldermen sandwiched between two other citi- 
zens," to say that the Confederate Army had 
gone. The most ignorant hoodlum that the 
caprices of rumsellers ever tossed into the civic 
chair, could hardly have acted with less dignity 
in a critical hour. Had the city officials of 
Charleston kept their wits about them, and at- 
tended vigilantly to their duty, the terrible de- 
struction of life and property which occurred 
upon the withdrawal of General Hardee, might 
have been avoided. When Georgetown was 
evacuated, one week later, the authorities there 
acted far more becomingly than those of "the 
Liverpool of the South." They sent at once to 
Admiral Dahlgren the following surrender, sign- 
ed by the Intendant and Wardens : — 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE. \ 69 

Sir : Whereas the confederate forces have evac- 
uated this town, the undersigned, intendant and 
wardens in council assembled, agreeably to your de- 
mand, do hereby surrender the town of Georgetown 
to the United States forces under your command, 
pledging ourselves upon honor in our official capacity, 
as far as lies in our power, to prevent any act inimi- 
cal to the United States forces garrisoned here, claim- 
ing such protection of persons and property as is us- 
ually accorded to communities in our situation. 

Thereupon the Admiral issued a proclama- 
tion, putting Georgetown under martial law, but 
continuing the intendant and wardens in the ex- 
ercise of many of their functions ; providing for 
the poor, and prohibiting "the sale or gift of all 
spirituous liquors." The senior naval line offi- 
cer present was made Post Commandant ; the 
senior marine officer was made Provost Marshal ; 
while the Judge- Advocate of the fleet was des- 
ignated as Provost Judge. This arrangement, 
of course, ended when, a few days later, the 
Army arrived. 

To correct the falsifications of various 
writers, it may be stated that the first troops to 
enter Charleston were two companies of the 
Fifty-second Pennsylvania Infantry, and a sec- 
tion of about thirty men of the Third Rhode 
Island Artillery. Other troops poured in rapid- 
ly during the afternoon, and marched through 



I/O LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

the streets singing ''John Brown's body lies 
mouldering in the grave," "Shouting the Battle 
cry of Freedom," and other Union songs, in 
tones that must have made the bones of John 
C. Calhoun rattle in his coffin. 

General Schimmelfennig, after fighting and 
winning, with the loss of ninety men, a battle on 
James' Island, (which later events proved to be 
unnecessary,) approached Charleston from the 
southwest, crossed the Ashley, and, entering the 
city, proclaimed martial law, and put an end to 
the disorder of the morning. 

Fifteen prizes were captured or destroyed 
at the approaches of Charleston during Dahl- 
gren's command, and a larger number at the ap- 
proaches of Savannah and other ports guarded 
by this squadron. The Charleston prizes were 
the Beatrice, Clotilda, Cyclops, Constance, Celt, 
Columbia, Deer, Flora, Lady Davis, Mab, Presto, 
Prince Albert, Syren, Transport, and a lighter. 
The Columbia, which was an iron-clad ram of 
the Atlanta pattern ; the Lady Davis, which was 
the first vessel put in commission in the Confed- 
erate Navy ; the Transport, the Mab, and three 
torpedo boats, like the David, were captured at 
the evacuation of the city, and were not sent to 
a prize court, because, in the opinion of the Navy 
Department, they were not distributable as 



LIFE AFL OAT AND A SHORE, 1 7 1 

prize. This opinion would seem to be in accord 
with the decision of the Supreme Court, '"••■ though 
this interpretation of the prize act was new ; and 
the blockaders of Charleston thought it hard 
that it should be applied to their prizes. 

One of Dahlgren's prizes was the Evening 
Star, which afterwards acquired a terrible re- 
nown. She was lost at sea, October 3, 1866, 
when 244 passengers, including a whole French 
opera troupe, perished with her.f A famous law- 
suit in New Orleans turned on the question 
which of two of her passengers survived the 
other. By the Common Law, the younger is 
presumed to survive ; but by the Civil Law, 
both are held to perish together. 

The last prize taken at Charleston was the 
Deer,| which entered the harbor, lulled to sleep 

* The Syren, 13 Wallace, 329 ; 1 Lowell, 282 ; Dahlgren's 
Maritime luteruational Law, p. 146. Strange to say, this 
case is not noticed in Baker's admirable edition of Ilal- 
leck's International Law. 

fSee note to Browne's Divorce and its Consequences. 
I 1 Lowell's Decisions, 95. The appendix to Mr. Welles' 
Report for 1865, p. 466, requires correction. The actual 
captor of the Deer was the Catskill, Lieutenant Command, 
er Edward Barrett. The extraordinary ovations with 
which Captain Barrett and his officers have been honored 
on ascending the Mississippi in the Plymouth, show that 
the cities of the southwest are full of hearts that are 
gladdened, as of yore, at the sight of the Star Spangled 
Banner flying at the peak of a Federal man-of-war. 



1/2 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

by the old Confederate signal fires, (which were 
now kept burning for the purpose of decoy,) 
and was seized before she discovered her mis- 
take. The Federal fleet now occupied the in- 
ner harbor, while the three Confederate Rams, 
which had so long guarded the channel — the 
Chicora, Palmetto State, and City of Charleston 
— lay in fragments beneath the waves, having 
been blown up by Commodore Tucker.''-' 

It was claimed by certain traders that the 
occupation of the city terminated, ipso facto, the 
blockade of the port ; but I held that it did not, 
and that Charleston and Savannah were closed 
lor all purposes of commerce until reopened by 
the Proclamation of the President. This view 
was sustained by the Secretaries of State, and 
of the Navy ; and the blockade remained till 
the close of the war. 

The pretence put forth by Boynton, after 
the repulse of the Monitors in 1863, "that the 

*"The buruing and blowing up of the iron-clads 
Palmetto State, Chicora and Charleston, was a magnifi- 
cent spectacle. The Palmetto State was the first to ex- 
plode, and was followed by the Chicora, about nine o'clock, 
and the Charleston, about eleven, A. M. The latter, it is 
stated, had twenty tons of gunpowder on board. Pieces 
of the iron plates, red hot, fell on the' wharves and set 
them on fire. The explosions were terrific. Tremendous 
clouds of smoke went up forming beautiful wreaths." — 
Charleston Courier. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 173 

occupation of Charleston was of very little im- 
portance," is unworthy of any historian. It is 
the fox's cry, ''Those grapes are sour." Equal- 
ly untrue is it, that ''Admiral Dahlgren, with his 
monitor guards within the bar, sealed the port of 
Charleston as effectually as if his fleet had been 
anchored between Sumter and the wharves"''-." 

Perhaps, it is true, that "it could have been 
captured by a determined attack, such as was 
made at New Orleans, Mobile and Fort Fish- 
er."f But it is no disparagement to either side 
to say that the Confederates made far greater 
efforts in defending than the Federals in attack- 
ing it, and that thereby they kept us out of it. 
When, at last, it fell into our hands, Pollard, 
the Confederate historian, took up the cry of 
"sour grapes." He says : "The vital points of 
the Confederacy were far in the interior, and as 
we had but few war vessels, our ports and har- 
bors were of little importance to us." 

It was a bon mot of Henry Ward Beecher, 
" Whom God abhors he sends to sea." And so 
thousands of our sailors felt, during the long 
blockade. Lord Macaulay says, "No place is 

♦Professor Bernard's book on the Neutrality of Great 
Britain during tlie American Civil War, pp. 28G — 291, 
contains much that is of value touching blockade-running 
at Charleston. 

tBoynton, vol. 1, p. 430—431. 



174 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

so propitious to the formation either of close 
friendships or of deadly enmities as an Indiaman, 
[or a man-of-war blockading a hostile coast.] 
There are very few people who do not find a 
voyage which lasts several months insupportably 
dull. Anything is welcome which may break 
that long monotony — a sail, a shark, an alba- 
tross, a man overboard. ■''' "-'' The inmates 
of the ship are thrown together far more than 
in any country-seat or boarding-bouse. None 
can escape from the rest except by imprisoning 
himself in a cell in which he can hardly turn. 
All food, all exercise, is taken in company. 
It is every day in the power of a mischievous 
person to inflict innumerable annoyances ; it is 
every day in the power of an amiable person 
to confer little services. It not seldom happens 
that serious distress and danger call forth in 
genuine beauty and deformity heroic virtues 
and abject vices, which, in the ordinary inter- 
course of good society, might remain during 
many years unknown even to intimate associ- 
ates." ■'"" Most grateful was the relief which 
came with the occupation of Charleston. 

Upon getting acquainted with the people 
of Charleston, I found them frank, affable, and 
free from sectional bitterness. As the South 

*Macaiilay's Essay on Hastings. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 1 75 



Carolina pickets were among the first to aban- 
don the barbarous practice of shooting our 
pickets ; so the South Carolina people were in 
my experience among the first to recognize the 
fact that their construction of the Federal 
Constitution was no longer admissible. 

I often mentioned the fact, that, when the 
Constitution was formed, their construction of 
that instrument was as common in the North 
as it afterwards became in the South, and that 
those who contended for our modern interpre- 
tation of it resisted its adoption because it was 
open to that interpretation. In the Massachu- 
setts Convention of 1788, the delegates from 
Middlesex voted 25 to 17 against its adoption. 

"The vote of the whole Convention was 187 
to 168, — only a majority of 19 in favor of the 
Constitution, in Massachusetts. Had the Con- 
stitution been submitted to a vote of the people 
of Massachusetts, it is highly probable that it 
would have been rejected. 

Seldom has a greater result depended upon 
so small a cause. The change of ten Delegates 
from the Valley of the Merrimack would prob- 
ably have defeated the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. Such a change 
would clearly have placed Massachusetts against 
that scheme of o-Qvernment ; and Madison, 



1/6 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

looking anxiously out of his Virginia home, 
wrote : — 'The decision of Massachusetts, in 
either way, will decide the vote of this State.' 

Those views of State Rights and State 
Sovereignty which culminated in our Civil War, 
were as strenuously maintained by thousands of 
the men of Middlesex and other Northern 
Counties, in 1789, as in Charleston or any other 
Southern City in 1 861. ''"'•■ 

Just as the entire coast blockaded by this 
squadron had thus been recovered, I had an 
attack of pneumonia, which, though short, 
was severe and sharp, and for a time seemed 
likely to be decisive. It had been my fortune 
to confront death in different forms — in perils 
from sickness, and from railroad accidents, as 
well as in perils of the sea and of battle, both 
on land and sea ; and whether I contemplated 
it as the end of life or as only an event of life, 
I had come to look upon it with something like 
equanimity. I was not destitute of the " good 
hope," which John Morley says creates at the 
hour of sunset no mean paradise, — " that the 
earth shall still be fair, and the happiness of every 
feeling creature still receive a constant augmen- 
tation, and each good cause yet find worthy 

♦Cowley's Historical Sketch of Middlesex County, in 
the Middlesex County Manual p. 77. 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. lyy 

defenders when the memory of my own poor 
name and personahty had long been blotted out 
of the brief recollection of men forever." 

Brilliantly as Mr. Morley sets forth ''the 
blessedness of annihilation," and " the peace of 
anticipated non-existence," no pomp of rhetoric 
can conceal the wretched affectation that lurks 
beneath. Whatever sublime stoic philosophic 
indifterence pious positivists like Mr. Mill, Mr, 
Morley, and Miss Martineau, may educate 
themselves to feel touching their own immor- 
tality, "the gift of eternal life" is a priceless 
boon. A million times better than this *' good 
hope " of Mr. Morley, at the supreme moment, 
is the humble prayer-hymn of Toplady, so often 
sung by the open coffin-lid : — 

" Rock of ages, cleft for me, '" 

Let me hide myself in thee." 
For hours I lay in such exquisite pain that 
I was unable to move hand or foot ; yet near 
enough to the ward-room to hear the careless 
remarks of the officers present. If what was 
said of my character and services was sufficient- 
ly flattering, I was not greatly edified by such 
remarks as these : — "I guess the Jack will 
never be hoisted for him again," (alluding to the 
flag which is always hoisted when a Naval 
General Court-Martial convenes.) "I understand 
Captain is going to take his place," 



178 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

" It is a good time for him to die now ; the Ad- 
miral will give him a big funeral," &c., &c.-'-' 
More encouraging was a remark made by the 
Doctor : '' Well, if he lives till this time to-mor- 
row without getting worse, I guess he'll pull 
through." 

A few days later, the body of Lieutenant 
Bradford, Ison of the Fleet Surgeon, was taken 
from the Potters' Field, where the Confederates 
had buried it, (he having been captured in the 
assault on Sumter and died in prison in Charles- 
Ion,) and buried with all naval and military hon- 
ors in the Magnolia Cemetery. Returning from 
these obsequies with Fleet Captain Bradford, I 
was told by him that, had I died as he expected, 
the Admiral designed to give me *' the funeral of 
an Achilles." Since then, the Admiral, the Fleet 
Captain, the surgeon who attended me with such 
thoughtful care, and the captain who expected 
to succeed me, have all descended to the tomb, 
while I, for whom the grave then yawned, sur- 
vive them all ! 

♦People that are not hard-hearted sometimes make 
most brutal remarks. A friend of mine, who once lay- 
sick of yellow fever in a New Orleans hospital, and who 
recovered when, by custom, he should have died, says, he 
heard the head-3urgeon twice inquire of a subordinate 

in impatient tones, two days in succession, "Aint dead 

yet ?" The cot he lay on was wanted for another. 



LIFE AFL OA T AND A SHORE. 1 79 



CHAPTER YIIL 

Destruction of the Harvest Moon — Death of Gen- 
eral Scliimmelfennig — The Federal Flag restored over 
Sumter — Distinguished Visitors in Charleston — As- 
sassination of President Lincoln. 

On March ist, occurred the last casualty in 
our fleet by the sub-marine devices of the Con- 
federates. The steamer Harvest Moon, used for 
the time being by the Admiral and his staff, in 
lieu of the flag-ship, was steaming down Win- 
yaw Bay, when, before breakfast, the explosion 
of a torpedo was heard below, and in less than 
a minute the vessel lay at the bottom. Fortu- 
nately only one man was killed ; — and the vessel 
not being entirely submerged, everything of value 
was soon recovered. Several Confederate ves- 
sels were lost accidentally by torpedoes intended 
for the Federals.* 



*See Barnes' Sub-marine Warfare. Also, Admiral 
Porter's article in the North American Beview., September- 
October, 1878 ; Captain Simpson's article in the Galaxy^ 
September, 1877 ; Edinburg Bevieiv, and Westminster 
Iievieiv, October 1877. By a slip of the pen, or an error 
of the types, Admiral Porter is made to say that the Wa- 
bash and the Minnesota were " lost," by torpedoes, 
(p. 231,) which is not true. 



i8o LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

Within a month after the recovery of Charles- 
ton, several officers of the Federal Army and 
Navy had purchased plantations near that city, 
and prepared to make their abode there. The 
inducements to do this were strong, and the 
prospect of making handsome returns on capital 
invested in cotton-planting was highly flattering. 
It was demonstrated to me by my managing man 
that the plantation which I had bought, between 
the Ashley and the Wando, would yield ten 
thousad dollars in crops, in one season, after 
paying all expenses. 

The sceptical spirit in which I offered to 
give all the profits of that year, exceeding two 
thousand dollars, to any man who would pay me 
that sum therefor, semed to surprise my neigh- 
bors, who, however, admitted my doubts to be 
well founded when, at the end of the year, I 
found myself a loser rather than a gainer by my 
experiment as a cotton-planter. 

On April loth, 1865, Gen. Schimmelfennig 
was compelled by failing health to relinquish 
the command of the Northern District of this 
Department and return North after twenty 
month's service. In his farewell letter to Ad- 
miral Dahlgren he traced with rapid strokes the 
history of his own services, and said: — 

"When General Grant forced the enemy 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. i8i 

back from the Rappahannock to Richmond, 
troops in my front received marching orders. 
I immediately attacked ; these troops were not 
sent north, and the commanding officer in 
Charleston called for re-enforcements from 
Virginia. 

"When General Sherman fought his battles 
before Atlanta, I again, under orders from Gen- 
eral Foster, attacked the enemy, and the result 
was that troops were sent from Atlanta to 
Charleston, though the enemy outnumbered us 
two to one. 

"Once more, when General Sherman was 
about to force his way over the North Edisto 
river, I attacked and harassed the enemy con- 
tinually for a week. Not a man was detached 
from Charleston ; and when General Hardee 
finally evacuated the city he had a force nearly 
double to that of all the troops operating 
against Charleston under General Gillmore. 

"I mention these facts. Admiral, merely in 
order to add that I should never have been 

ABLE TO ATTAIN THESE RESULTS WITHOUT THE 
HEARTY AND MOST EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF 
THE FLEET UNDER YOUR COMMAND." 

The Admiral had become much rittached 
to this officer, who was a Prussian by birth, and 
who had been trained in the Army of the 



1 82 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Kaiser. On going aboard the Steamer Mas- 
sachusetts, which carried him to Philadelphia, 
he was honored with a salute by the Navy, 
which touched him much. *'I thank your Ad- 
miral," he said ; ''I thank him much, and you, 
too, and all your brothers of the Navy. You have 
all been good brothers to me; I never wanted 
any thing done, but you did it. But all is past 
now. I shall never have another command." 
Then, suddenly realizing his own condition, 
struggling with his feelings as though his great 
heart would break, he added " I am going home 
to die, Judge Cowley; I am going home to die!" 
A few weeks after, this intrepid spirit passed to 
the life beyond life. 

Many of the ladies^ and gentlemen who 
assisted in restoring the Federal flag over Sum- 
ter, April 14, 1865, published accounts of that 
event and of Charleston as it then was ; but the 
best articles that I have seen touching the terri- 
tory about Charleston are those in Harper's 
Magazine for December, 1865, and November, 
1878. No historian of these times has omitted 
the restoration of the flag by Anderson to the 
fort which he had surrendered, four years before. 

President Lincoln took a deep interest in 
that event, and invited George Thompson of 
England, the eloquent coadjutor of Clarkson 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 183 

and Wilberforce, to unite with William Lloyd 
Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher and other cham- 
pions of freedom in America, in the services of 
that memorable day. 

The oration of Mr. Beecher was worthy of 
his renown. He commenced with his head un- 
covered, as usual ; but the high wind behaved 
outrageously and blew his hair about in all direc- 
tions, like smoke and flame from a burning brush- 
heap. So Mr. Beecher quietly put on his hat, 
(a black, felt, uncanonical article,) and wore it to 
the end. One battery was delayed in firing 
the salute ordered for the occasion, so that its 
guns were booming after the oration began. The 
reports happened to be so timed that they fell 
upon the ear exactly at the close of sentences. 
Collusion was suspected between the orator and 
the gunner, but the orator denied all privity with 
any plan to punctuate his oration with cannon. 
Two or three extracts indicate the elevated spirit 
of this oration : 

" Are we come to exult that Northern hands are 
stronger than Southern ? No; but to rejoice that the 
hands of those who defend a just and beneficent gov- 
ernment are mightier than the hands that assaulted 
it ! Do we exult over fallen cities ? We exult that 
a Nation has not fallen. We sorrow with the sorrow- 
ful. We sympathise with the desolate. We look 
upon this shattered fort, and yonder dilapidated city, 



1 84 LE Ay ES FROM A LAWYER'S 

wnth sad eyes. We exult, not for a passion gratified, 
but for a sentiment victorious ; not for temper, but for 
conscience ; not — as we devoutly believe — that our 
will is done, but that God's will hath been done." 

'■'' There is scarcelj^ a man born in the South who 
has lifted his hand against this banner, but had a 
father who would have died for it. Is memory dead ? 
Is there no historic pride ? Has a fatal fury struck 
blindness or hate into eyes that used to look kindly 
toward each other; th : read the same Bible; that 
hung over the historic pages of our national glory ; 
that studied the same Constitution T'* 

The peroration was admirable. The follow- 
ing sentence was spoken with marked emphasis, 
and was most heartily applauded ; none dream- 
ing that when the tidings of this event reached 
the capital, Abraham Lincoln would be welter- 
ing in his blood : 

" We offer to the President of these United 
States our solemn congratulations that God has sus- 
tained his life and health under the unparalleled 
burdens and sufferings of four bloody 3^ears, and per- 
mitted him to behold this auspicious consummation 
of that national unity for which he has waited with 
so much patience and fortitude, and for which he has 
labored with such disinterested wisdom. -^ ^ ^ ^.:- 

*This paragraph was put in type by William Lloyd 
G'arrison in tlie office of the Courier, which published the 
oration and an account of the commemorative services, 
on the followiu"- day. 



IJPE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 1S5 

To the officers and men of the army and navy, 
who have so faithfully, skillfully and gloriously up- 
held their country's authority, by suffering, labor and 
sublime courage, we offer a heart-tribute beyond the 
compass of words. 

Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and 
women, who have borne up with unflinching hope in 
the darkest hour, and covered the land with their la- 
bors of love and charity, we invoke the divinest bless- 
ing of Him whom they have so truly imitated. 

But chiefly to Thee, Grod of our fathers, we ren- 
der thanksgiving and praise for the wonderous provi- 
dence that has brought forth from such a harvest of 
war the seed of so much liberty and peace." 

There were passages in Dr. Storr's prayer 
which fell upon the ear like harmonies of celes- 
tial music : 

" Remember those who have been our enemies 
and turn their hearts from wrath and war to love and 
peace. Let the desolations that have come on them 
suffice, and unite them with us in the ties of a better 
brotherhood than of old; that the cities and homes 
and happiness they have lost may be more than re- 
placed in the long prosperity they shall hereafter 

Help us who are here assembled before Thee, and 
who never again shall be so assembled until we stand 
before Thy bar, to consecrate ourselves afresh, on this 
historic day, to the welfare of our land ; to the cause, 
and the cross, and the truth of our Lord ; that we may 



3 86 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

live evermore to Thy glor}^, may walk in Tliy liglit,, 
may die at last in Thy perfect peace, and may rise to 
our rest in the bosom of Thy love." 

The lofty charity expressed in these pas- 
sages shone by contrast with the barbaric bit- 
terness and sectional rancor that disfigured the 
famous funeral sermon at Savannah, which 
Bishop Elliott preached, a few months earlier^ 
over Bishop-General Polk : yet, the sermon of 
Bishop Elliott was not wanting in passages of 
exquisite tenderness and beauty. Addressing 
the dead body before him, he said : "Thou art 
very welcome to me, my brother; welcome in 
death as in life. "'•-" "''" Thy ashes shall repose 
beneath the shadow of the Church of Christ." 

On the day following the Sumter fete, an 
immense throng crowded the African Church to 
greet and hear William Lloyd Garrison, George 
Thompson, Henry Wilson, and others from the 
North, Thousands being unable to gain admit- 
tance, a supplementary meeting was held at Cit- 
adel Square. There was one scene in the church, 
pre-arranged by Mr. Redpath, which those who 
witnessed it will never forget. It was that of the 
eloquent natural orator, Samuel Dickerson, and 
his two daughters, full-blooded blacks, and eman- 
cipated slaves, presenting to the brave old Gar- 
rison a wreath of the most beautiful flowers of 



LIFE A FL OA T AND A SHORE. \ 8; 

that semi-tropical climate, together with a wel- 
come to Charleston, and the thanks and bene- 
dictions of their race. 

That scene, I venture to predict, will live 
again hereafter on the painter s burning" canvas 
and on the historian's pictured page. 

Mr. Garrison's unstudied speech, — "I have 
been an out-law, with a price set upon my head, 
for thirty years, for your sakes ; but I never ex- 
pected to look you in the face, or that you would 
ever hear of anything I might do in your be- 
half," — showed how truly he had learned and 
practiced that duty of self-sacrifice and of self- 
denying labor for others which Christianity en- 
joins as the sublimest duty of man. 

The principal addresses on that day rose to 
real eloquence. What contributed to make them 
so was the consciousness that the speakers were 
greater than their words — that there was in 
them " something greater than all eloquence, — 
action, — noble, sublime, God-like action." 

The most eloquent of the speakers on that 
day was George Thompson, whose decease, at a 
ripe old age, in his own native land, has been 
telegraphed by the Atlantic Cable since these 
pages were put in type. 

"It is hard." he said, "to believe that I am at 
once in the cradle and the grave of treason, secession 



1 88 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

and slavery. To me it lias been given to see two 
great, pure, signal, glorious triumphs effected. To me 
has been given the unspeakable privilege of being a 
co-laborer with Wilberforce and Clarkson, who led the 
way in the great struggle for British abolition — the 
abolition of the internal slave-trade, and its child, 
slavery. To me, also, it has been given to see their 
triumph, to see them go up to heaven, presenting at 
the throne of the heavenly grace a million of broken 
manacles, and Africa redeemed from her English 
spoiler. 

Now it is my privilege to be the co-worker and 
companion in joy of the Wilberforce of America — 
William Lloyd Garrison. For thirty years and more 
my heart has been with you ; with you on the planta- 
tion, with you on the auction block, with j^ou in your 
unrequited toil, with you in your sufferings, separa- 
tions, and scourgings ; and now I am with you in 
your freedom. ***** =^ * 

During the thirty years that have elapsed be- 
tween my first and last visit, a revolution has taken 
place at the North. I left the colleges on the side of 
slavery. I returned and found the colleges on the 
side of liberty. I left America when there was but 
one man [John Quincy Adams] in the House of Con- 
gress who dared to present an anti-slavery petition. 
I returned and found scarce a man in Congress who 
would not deem himself honored by being selected to 
present such a petition. I left America with the news- 
papers of the country and the literature of the country 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 189 

on the side of slaverj^ I returned and find the news- 
papers and literature, the best and most popular works 
published in the country, on the side of freedom. I 
find the man who towers the highest in the estima- 
tion of the people of the North is the man most earn- 
estly, most sincerely, most uncompromisingly devoted 
to the cause of universal, impartial freedom." 

In the evening of. that clay, a delegation of 
colored wqmen called on Mr. Beecher. Four 
of these women had been caught in the act of 
carrying food, medicines, and bandages in the 
night to prisoners on the Race Course, and had 
been lashed on their backs for thus seeking to 
do what the Church prays God to do — *' to show 
pity upon all prisoners and captives." One of 
them had received seventy-five lashes on her 
bare back for her humanity and kindness toward 
these suffering men. 

On Easter Sunday, April i6th, Mr. Beecher 
preached in the same Church. But as the hour 
struck when the the sound of the church-going 
bell would have been heard if all the bells of 
Charleston had not been removed or melted into 
cannon, I left for Cuba in the Steamer Mary 
Sanford, and did not hear him. 

'' From the sublime to the ridiculous," said 
Thomas Paine, "there is but a step." Parting 
from Beecher at Charleston, when in the zenith 



IQO LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

of his fame, I met him a,o;ain, ten years later, in 
the Supreme Court at Brooklyn, when brought 
to trial there by one who went with him to 
Charleston as his parasite and pi-otcge. 

Previous to sailing, I took a walk with Sen- 
ator Wilson to the churchyard of St. Michael's 
Church, and showed him, in a thicket, covered 
with brambles and weeds, the grave of the elo- 
quent Hayne, the antagonist of Webster, Wil- 
son's own predecessor in the Senate, in the great 
Nullification Debate of 1830. Neither of us 
spoke for some minutes. Words had lost their 
power, as we stood by the grav^e of that apostle 
of secession, and gazed on the ruin which his 
doctrines had brought upon the city of his love. 

Tears filled Mr. Wilson's eyes, and his fea- 
tures bore the evidence of strong emotion as he 
stood thoughtful, silent, motionless, as if rivetted 
to that charmed spot. At length, I broke the 
silence by saying that, if I only had the power 
of a painter, I would try my hand on a scene 
which, in the hands of a good artist, would Uve 
for centuries. " What do you mean T inquired 
Wilson. *• Why, I would take for my subject 
* The Successor of Daniel Webster at the Grave 
of Robert Y. Hayne!'" " It would be good," 
Wilson rejoined, v" I would not have missed this 
for all there is in Charleston besides !" 



PYag Ship "Philadelphia." 
Ch<irlcstoii Harbor, S. C. April \g, 1865. 

A grievous afiiictioii has fallen upon the 
Nation. President Lincoln has been as- 
sassinated. The vessels of this command 
will wear their colors at half mast, until 
further orders. 

On the receipt of this order twenty-one 
minute guns will be hred from every vessel 
in the squadron, beginning with the senior 
vessel ; each vessel following in the order 
ofsenority. The minute guns will be re- 
peated at sunset. 

The Officers will also wear crape on the 
left arm. [This badge of mourning con- 
tinued to be worn for six months.] 

Other orders will be issued by the Navy 
Department. '•'■■ The sorrow we all feel for 
o-ur loss; indicates the above as the first 
proper manifestation. 

JOHN A. DAHLGREN, 
Rear Admiral, Commanding- 
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 

*Tlif\se orders directed amoii^ other things, that 
the commandants of squadrons, navy yards, and 
stations cause the ensign of every vessel etc. to be 
hoisted at half-mast, and a gun to be fired every 
half hour, from sunrise to sunset. 



192 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

The news of the murder of President Lin- 
coln reached Charleston April 19th, during my 
absence ; and I give, on another page, the order 
issued by Admiral Dahlgren on that occasion. 
The Admiral had a strong personal affection for 
the President, and was much beloved by him, in 
turn. While commandant of the Washington 
Navy Yard, he often contributed to fill the ach- 
ing void in the President's saddened heart. " 1 
like to see Dahlgren," said Mr. Lincoln. "The 
drive to the Navy Yard is one of my greatest 
pleasures. When I am depressed, I like to talk 
with Dahlgren. I learn something of the prepa- 
rations for defence, and I get from him consola- 
tion and courage. On the whole, I like to see 
Dahlsiren." 



CHAPTER IX. 

A Trip to the Tropics — Havanna — Cuban Scenes 
— Charles the Fifth's Judge- Advocate — Palmetto 
Politics — Close of Admiral Dahlgren's Command. 

The path of the Mary Sanford lay off the 
coast of the beautiful Sea Islands. We were 
four days from Charleston when the weekly mail 
steamer for Havanna, which left New York the 
Saturday before, came up with us, wearing her 



LIFE A FL OA T AND A SHORE. 1 93 

flag at half-mast. We sent a boat to her for the 
news. The boat soon returned with copies of 
the Herald^ Tribune, TimeSy and World, and 
also — horror of horrors ! — the news of the assas- 
ination of President Lincoln ! The feeling pro- 
duced upon all on board was intense ; and tears 
rolled freely down the cheeks of old sailors, 
who, before the abolition of flogging, had taken 
their fort}/ stripes save one without flinching. It 
seemed as if every man had lost his best friend 
— "'* as if the hunter's path, and the sailor's, in 
the great solitude of wilderness and sea, were 
henceforth more lonely and less safe than be- 
fore." We were now off the coast guarded by the 
East Gulf Blockading Squadron, and ** dipped 
our flag " to Admiral Stribling as we approached 
his flag-ship. Blockaders had few attractions for 
us, then; so we pushed on towards the "ever- 
faithful isle." 

On Friday night, I could smell oders of 
tropical vegetation waited across many leagues 
of sea. The canopy of heaven seemed studded 
more thickly than ever with what Prince Albert 
called " terraces of stars ;" — (which I think a fe- 
licitous phrase, though Humboldt sneered at it 
as too fanciful.) Among the many strange con- 
stellations, I soon recognized the Southern Cross 
marching in triumph across the sky. 



194 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

How few of those who *' make Havanna" by 
doubling the western capes of Cuba, give a 
thought to that isthn^us or promontory which, in 
by-gone ages, connected Cuba with Yucatan ? 
Yet there can hardly be a doubt that the penin- 
sula of Yucatan was once thus united to " the 
ever faithful isle." But when and how they were 
divorced, are problems for geologists. 

Just as the Lord of Day was making his 
preparations '* to quit his chamber in the East," 
the look-out shouted, ** Land ho !" For several 
hours our path lay along the coast of a veritable 
paradise. The dwelling houses of the planters, 
painted in various bright colors, shone resplen- 
dent in the morning sun-light, and I fancied that 
they were imitations of the domestic architecture 
of the Moors of Spain. Then, those lofty palm 
trees — how finely they contrasted with the pal- 
mettoes — those bastard palms — of the South 1 
But I will not attempt — what so many others 
have failed to do — to convey any adequate idea 
of the gorgeous beauty of this tropical land- 
scape. It was, as the only living lady on board 
the Mary Sanford repeatedly said, " perfectly 
splendid ;" and yet I would not exchange the 
cranberry of New England for any product of 
the tropics. 

Havanna has been many times described. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 195 

and I found it pretty much as others have found 
it, save that its harbor, (which is shaped exactly 
lilvc one half of a bisected bottle lying with the cut 
side upwards,) contained a dozen or more of 
those long, low, rakish-looking steamers, with 
short masts and convex-decks, painted lead col- 
or, which we had often fired at durinsf the long 
blockade. 

Walking in the Plaza di Arma, and other 
squares and streets of Havanna, I seemed to be 
transported to the times of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, and of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. On 
Sunday, I heard a sermon in sonorous Spanish 
in the Cathedral ; and having attended three 
masses in the morning, I followed the custom of 
the city, and witnessed five bull-fights in the 
afternoon. To my taste, these combats between 
armed men and horses, on the one side, and in- 
furiated bulls, on the other, seemed utterly re- 
volting. But custom will make men anything. 
Not only the senors but the fair senoretas also, 
went wild with delight when the poor horses 
were gored and disemboweled by the maddened 
bulls, or when the poor bull, stung almost to 
death by torpedoes in his flesh, was thrust by the 
fatal lance, and fell reeling to the earth. 

It was with great reluctance that I turned 
away from \\\^ passeos behind Havanna, of which 



2 96 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

no one who has ever driven over them in those 
grotesque volantes will need any description, 
while to those who have not seen them, no words 
of mine could convey any adequate conception 
of their marvellous attractions and rich tropical 
— I might say magical — beauty. They are to Ha- 
vanna all and more than all that the Central Park 
is to New York ; and nothing save the Bois de 
Bologne of Paris could excel them in the sights 
which they present with their thousand light vo- 
lantes — the wheels at one end, the mounted 
steed at the other, and the stately, bare-headed, 
white-robed scnoretas sitting serenely between. 

The courts of justice in Havanna are com- 
modious apartments, elegantly furnished, and 
contrasted finely with the cabins and ward-rooms 
in which I had so long been administering jus- 
tice according to the criminal code of the Navy. 
Some of them displayed full-length portraits of 
Queen Isabella, and of her predecessors on the 
Spanish throne. 

I was fortunate in making the acquaintance ' 

of Senor , a learned advocate who had 

travelled in Europe and the United States. He 
showed me an old book which he had picked up 
in Madrid, entitled De Re Militare et de Bello, 
written in Latin, by Pierino Bello, in 1558, and 
published in Venice in 1563. This treatise was 



LIFE AFLOA T .AND ASHORE. 197 

the first effort ever made to reduce the practice 
of nations in the conduct of war to a system of 
judicial rules. Bello, otherwise called Bellinus, 
was a native of Alba, in Piedmont,^ and was Judge- 
Advocate of the Army of the Emperor Charles 
the Fifth of Germany during his war with Fran- 
cis the First of France in the North of Italy, and 
afterwards Chancellor of War and of State to 
the Emperor's son, Phillip the Second of Spain. 
He was born in 1502, and died in 1575, and was 
at the time of his death High Chancellor of Sa- 
voy. His work served as a guide to that of 
Aibericus Gentilis de Jure Belli/'' published 
forty years later, and also to the great work of 
Grotius, on the Rights of War and Peace, in 1625. 

The next effort of this kind was made by 
Balthazar Ayala, the Judge - Advocate of the 
Spanish Army in the Netherlands, under Alex- 
ander Farnese, the Prince of Parma, to whom 
the work was dedicated in 1581. 

The third was made by Aibericus Gentilis, 
in 1 598, while teaching at Oxford, and dedicated 
to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the favorite 
and the victim of Queen Elizabeth. 

Judge-Advocate Bellinus was the true Fa- 
ther of International Law : yet in the works of 

*See Juclge-Aclvocate-General Twiss on Aibericus Gen- 
tilis, in London Law Magazine and Review, Nov. 77 — 
Feb. '78. 



198 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

Wheaton, Kent, Phillimore and Halleck, he is 
hardly named. Judge- Advocate Ayala fares 
little better. Grotius, whose own services ought 
to secure an immortality of fame, has honors 
heaped upon him unbidden, which justly belong 
to Bellinus and Ayala. 

From the days of Bellinus and Ayala to the 
days of Halleck, Holt and Twiss, the Judges- 
Advocates of the Armies and Navies of Europe 
and America have not failed to make constant 
efforts, by their writings, as well as by their prac- 
tice, to improve the several systems of law, which, 
in their two-fold character as Judges and as Ad- 
vocates, they have been called to administer. 

Here also I saw the secret memoirs of the 
Count of Aranda, one of the ablest and most 
trusted ministers of Charles the Third of Spain, 
printed in Spanish a few years before. From 
these memoirs I quote the following remarkable 
letter, written by him in confidence to his sov- 
ereign, upon signing the treaty of 1783 : — 

" I have just concluded and signed a treaty of 
peace with England, and this negotiation has left 
in my mind a painful sentiment. We have recognized 
the independence of the English colonies, and that is 
to me a subject of grief and of dread. France has few 
possessions in America; but she ouglit to have remem- 
bered that Spain, her intimate all}^, has manj^, which 
now remain exposed to terrible convulsions. I will not 



LIFE AFL OA T AND A SHORE. 1 99 

stop to examine the opinions of statesmen, as well 
countrymen as foreigners, who agree with me in esti- 
mation of the intrinsic difficulty of preserving our 
domination in America. Without entering into those 
considerations it suffices to content myself with refer- 
ring to the perils with which we are menaced, on the 
side of the new power just created in a part of the 
earth where no other power exists capable of with- 
standing its progress. This new federal republic has 
come into being a pigmy, so to speak, and in order to 
attain its independence has needed the support and 
the forces of two great powers, France and Spain. The 
day is at hand when in those regions it will be a giant 
— a terrible colossus. Then it will forget the benefits 
which it has received from iis, and will think only of 
its own aggrandizement. The liberty of conscience, 
the facility of establishing new populations in im- 
mense territories, and the peculiar advantages held 
forth by the new government, will attract thither cul- 
tivators and artizans of all nations, since men rush in 
pursuit of fortune ; and thus, in a few years, we shall 
witness with sorrow the menacing existence of the an- 
ticipated colossus. The first step of this power, when 
it shall have grown to strength, will be to possess it- 
self of the Floridas, in order to command the Gulf of 
Mexico. After having thus interposed itself in the 
way of our commerce with New Spain, it will aspire 
to conquer that great empire, which it will not be pos- 
sible to defend against a formidable power, establish- 
ed on the same continent, and what is more, coter- 



200 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

minous withit. These apprehensions are well founded, 
and cannot fail to be realized within a few years, un- 
less indeed, before then, revolutions still more disas- 
trous should break forth in our Americas." 

With so clear a view of the future of the 
nascent Union, it is not to be wondered, that 
this great man sought to ward off this peril from 
Spain by creating semi-independent monarchies 
out of the Spanish Colonies, to be governed by 
vassal Spanish princes under Charles as emperor 
of Spain and the Indies, the latter retaining the 
immediate government only of the Islands of 
Cuba and Puerto Rico. 

It has often been said that England " bit off 
her own nose " in extinguishing the French 
dream of domination in America by the conquest 
of Canada. She certainly thereby provoked 
France to incite that discontent and rebellion 
which culminated in the independence of the Uni- 
ted States. Spain, also, **bit off her nose," by 'dd- 
ing the revolted Colonies. So thought this far- 
sighted Count of Aranda, whose prophetic words 
came freshly to my mind as I pondered, not with- 
out hope, on the prospect that Cuba will yet be- 
come a member of the American Federal Union. 
Had the counsels of Aranda prevailed, Span- 
ish America might have been spared twenty years 
of anarchy and civil war, as Portugese America 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 201 

was by the timely adoption of the same wise 
policy. 

Whether the Count of Aranda had heard of 
Governor Pownall of Massachusetts, I know not ; 
but it is remarkable that Pownall sought to an- 
ticipate the independence of the British Ameri- 
can Colonies by making them members of a 
great British Federal Union. 

This Senor , I may say, was admir- 
ably fitted, by culture and tastes, for public life ; 
yet under the despotic system of Cuba, there 
was no more chance for a political career for 
him, than there would be in some of the Irish or 
German wards of Boston, New York, St. Louis, 
or Cincinnati ; and perhaps it is an open ques- 
tion, whether the rule of one narrow-minded 
bigot is not more tolerable than that of a mob of 
narrow-minded bigots. 

I left Havana with several purposes unful- 
filled. One of these was a trip to the Valley of 
the Yumuri, immortalized first by the hand of 
Nature, and again by the pen of Maria Brooks.'^ 

My visit was one of uninterrupted enjoy- 
ment, which was greatly augmented by the many 
attentions of Charles Dudley Tyng, one of the 

*See Maria del Occident, in Harper's Magazine for 
January, 1879. 



202 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Tyngs of Newburyport, then commercially dom- 
iciled in Havana. 

Some of the last of the blockade-runners 
lay in the harbor of Havana when we left ; and 
one of our officers, with a turn for poetry, adap- 
ted to *' the Last Blockade Runner " Lord Ma- 
caulay's lively *^ Lay of the Last Buccaneer." 
Had th^ noble poet lived to see these adapta- 
tions, I fear he would have punished the adap- 
tor as unsparingly as he punished Robert Mont- 
gomery and John Wilson Croker. 

I had received from Captain John S. Sleeper, 
formerly editor of the Lowell J^onrnal, and after- 
wards of the Boston Journal, some vivid ac- 
counts of the pirates who infested these waters 
early in the present century. •••■ I had also read of 
the famous buccaneers of the seventeenth cen- 
tury ; but never till I visited their favorite cruis- 
ing-ground, did I realize that the buccaneers 
were the natural outcome from the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of their time. Mr. Froude well says : 

** The privateers, Spanish, French, English, 
Scotch, and Flemish, who in time of war learnt 
the habits of plunder under a show of legality, 
glided by an easy transition into buccaneers 

*See the admirable paper on these pirates, read by 
Captain Sleeper before the New England Historic, Gen- 
ealogical Society in 1877. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 203 

whenever peace withdrew from them their Hcen- 
ces. The richness of the possible spoils, the 
dash and adventure in the mode of obtaining it, 
and the doubtful relations of the courts of Eu- 
rope to each other, which made the services o^ 
such men continually valuable, and secured them 
the partial connivance of their respective gov- 
ernments combined to disguise the infamy of a 
marauding profession. The pirate of to-day was 
the patriot of to-morrow. "••^ 

In a few hours a terrible storm came on, 
and before we were aware of it we were in the 
paradise of the wreckers on the coast of Floridc.. 
The sea ran mountains high, the wind blew tow- 
ard the land, and for hours we were in peril of 
running on the lee shore. 

" In sucli a tempest, borne to deeds of death, 
The wild, weird sisters scour the blasted heath." 

At length the storm ceased ; and having 
made the Gulf stream, that remarkable ** river in 
the ocean," we were soon once more in Charles- 
ton. There I soon learned that, though out of 
sight, I had not been out of mind to my Charles- 
ton friends, during my trip to the tropics. They 
had been holding what they called a *' Union 
League Mass Convention," for the purpose, 

^Froude's History of England, vol. 5, p. 135. This 
was equally true of the pirates of 1800-1820. 



204 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

among others, of recommending some one to 
President Johnson for the office of Provisional 
Governor of South Carolina ; and knowing that I 
was about to quit the Navy, they had voted to 
recommend me for that position. This expres- 
sion of confidence on their part was most grati- 
fying ; though I was not conscious of any special 
fitness for that office. In fact I had signed a 
petition for B. F. Perry, whom the President 
soon after appointed. 

Having assisted in organizing the Republi- 
can party, and helping it into power in the Pal- 
metto State, I protest that I am wholly innocent 
of the crimes by which the names of too many 
of the Republican leaders were afterwards 
"damned to everlasting fame." Not a hint had 
yet been heard, of those portentous frauds by 
which that once - glorious commonwealth was 
humbled in the dust, and burdened with a weight 
of debt which will retard her prosperity for gen- 
erations to come. 

I lingered too long in the tropics to fulfil a 
promise to my friend, Mr. Redpath, to deliver an 
address, in Charleston, on the day of the deco- 
ration of the graves of the martyrs of the Race- 
Course. James Redpath, I believe, is the real 
originator of the practice of publicly decorating 
the graves of the men who died in our military 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 205 

or naval service during the Civil War. His col- 
ored clients at Charleston, where he was then 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, were the 
first decorators ; and 1 barely escaped the honor 
of giving the first decoration-day oration. I had 
made some preparation for that most welcome 
service ; had gathered together from all access- 
ible sources the history of the Race-Course 
Prison, and also of the Morris-Island Stockade ; 
(for I meant to treat both sides with equal fair- 
ness.) Some tribute I would gladly have paid 
to those unnamed heroes who, lingering from 
week to week, suffered the bitter pains of ten 
thousand deaths, when they had only to re- 
nounce their allegiance to the Union in order to 
be released. 

" To play the part of heroism on its high 
places and in its theatre," as Rufus Choate once 
said, "is not perhaps so very difficult." But to 
play it continuously for months, with no prospect 
of relief, unseen by any sympathizing human 
eye, frowned on by all around them, save their 
suffering, starving comrades, was the sad trial 
and the supreme triumph of the martyrs of the 
Race-Course. 

Nor would I have withheld the honors due 
to those unnamed heroines, whose backs were 
scored by the lash, because they dared to visit 



2o6 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

our prisoners in the night, and carry bread to 
the hungry, bandages to the wounded, and med- 
icines to the sick, and to receive the last messa- 
ges of the dying. 

The Confederate soldier or sailor, who hon- 
estly held that his highest allegiance was due to 
his own state, and to the southern Confederacy, 
and who in that faith fought the forces of the 
Union on land or sea, should have heard no 
word of reproach ; nor would I have stung his 
pride by calling him a rebel or a traitor. But to 
those wretches who aggravated the asperities of 
the war by reviving barbarities which even sava- 
ges have abandoned, I would have shown no 
mercy. Generally, they were not soldiers, though 
they had donned military attire. For them even 
the bitter words of Lord Macaulay were too 
sweet : — 

" Shame on those cruel eyes 
That dared to look on torture, 
But dared not look on war." 

The time now came for the reduction of the 
Navy to a peace basis, and for the union of the 
North and South Atlantic Squadrons under one 
commander. At the end of June I accompanied 
Admiral Dahlgren to the capital in the Pawnee. 
The flag of the South Atlantic Blockading Squad- 
ron, which Dupont unfurled at Fortress Munroe 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 207 

on the 29th of October, 1861, was hauled down 
by Admiral Dahlgren at Washington, on the 12th 
day of July, 1865 ; and the books of that com- 
mand were closed forever. 

Previous to leaving Charleston, the Admiral 
issued two farewell orders, in one of which, 
among other things, he pays his compliments to 
each officer of his staff by name ; while in the 
other he traces with rapid strokes the history of 
the squadron during the two years of his com- 
mand.'-'' 

I cannot allow the beloved and honored 
name of Dahlgren to drop from my narrative 
without making, at least, this attestation : — that 
a more intrepid spirit never walked this earth in 
human form ; that his steadfast soul knew no 
such thing as fear ;f that his constant, utmost, 
only aim was to render to his country the great- 
est and best service possible ; that, alike in fight- 
ing and in forbearing to fight, he never hesitated 
to sacrifice himself, his fame, and his hope of 

=i^See Secretary Welles' Report for 1865, pp. 343-346. 

fWitness the sublime daring with which he pushed 
off in his barge, and pulled through a heavy sea and a tre- 
mendous fire of shells to the Passaic, when that renowned 
little turtle-back got aground under Fort Moultrie, and 
when none but the utmost efforts of all her consorts could 
have saved her from destruction or what was infinitely 
worse — capture. 



2o8 LEA VES FROM A LA WYERS 

higher fame, for the good of his country ; that in 
his private relations with me, (which were as in- 
timate and as confidential as those with any other 
officer of his personal staff,) I found him always 
kind, generous, frank, cordial, sympathetic and 
confiding ; and that I never met one who meri- 
ted "the grand old name of Gentleman" more 
than he. Much more I would add, especially 
concerning him as a man of science, and the in- 
ventor of the best forms of ordnance, but for 
the fact that his biography is now in preparation 
by able and loving hands ; so that no further 
account of him is needed. 

It is, however, worthy of mention here, that 
he obtained the idea of the formation of his un- 
rivalled gun from observing the formation of the 
soda-water bottle. This he told me himself; and 
a moment's inspection will demonstrate that, in 
the bottle as in his gun, the weight of metal is 
thrown into the breech. 

I can indulge no better hope for our Amer- 
ican Navy, than that, in all the ages of its future, 
it may never want officers to improve its gun- 
nery and to command its squadrons, who shall 
be equal to the ingenious, the intrepid, the chiv- 
alrous, the high-souled Dahlgren. 



CHAPTER X. 

Courts-Martial and Civil Courts compared — 
Some Points in Military and Naval Law — Unity in 
the Methods of Procedure in the two Services. 

I have often been asked, since my return to 
civil life, vi^hat are the advantages, or the disad- 
vantages, of courts-martial as agencies for ad- 
ministering criminal justice. The advantages 
are : first, greater freedom from technicality in 
describing the accused and the time, place and 
manner of the offence f" second, greater certainty 
that the tribunal v^hich passes upon the facts, 
{i. e. the court sitting as a jury,) will possess the 
requisite special knowledge, in cases requiring 
special knowledge ; third, the evidence is pre- 
served entire for the examination of the review- 
ing power. Often, when cheated out of *' excep- 
tions to rulings at nisi prius,' by slippery judges 

*The Cilley case, however, in the S. A. B. Squadron, 
in 1863, and some others, broke down for want of suffi- 
cient allegations as to the place of the alleged offence. 



210 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

who would substitute their after-thoughts for 
rulings suddenly and inconsiderately made, I 
have sighed for the full record of the court-mar- 
tial, made at the moment, and like ** the law of 
the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 

The disadvantages are, the proneness of 
courts-martial to convict in cases of doubt ; the 
exclusion of all oral examination and cross-ex- 
amination of witnesses ; the depriving the ac- 
cused of the advantages that are often secured, 
in civil courts, by the power of forensic elo- 
quence. But I have seen juries more alarmingly^ 
— ay, scandalously, — prone to convict than any 
court-martial with which I ever sat as judge- 
advocate, or before which I have ever appeared 
as counsel for the accused. The boasted advan- 
tages of cross-examining witnesses viva voce, of 
firing into them rattling vollies of confusing 
questions, and of badgering them into apparent 
contradictions, have been much over-estimated 
by such lawyers as Lord Erskine-^ and Lord 
Abinger in Great Britain, and by Judge Lord, 
Charles O'Conor, General Butler, and Judge 
Fullerton in the United States. Such, I know, 

*Erskme, by the way, was as successful before naval 
general courts-martial composed of British officers, as be- 
fore "the Twelve" in courts of common law. Witness 
his defence of Admiral Keppel. 



LIFE AFL OAT AND ASHORE. 2 1 1 

was the mature opinion of Charles Sumner ; and 
it was strikingly illustrated in the trial of Tilton 
V. Beecher, in which Mrs. Moulton, on the one 
side, and Miss Turner, on the other, successfully 
withstood the best efforts of Mr. Evarts, and Mr. 
FuUerton, respectively, to break the force of 
their testimony by the tactics of a most skillful 
cross-examination. The triumph of Mrs. Jenks 
over Mr, Butler, when cross-examined before the 
famous Potter Committee, was even more re- 
markable than that of Mrs. Moulton over Mr. 
Evarts, or of Miss Turner over Mr. Fullerton. 
A cross-examination is very often more damag- 
ing to the cross-examiner than to his adversary. 
The acquittal of Sickles, one of the most bril- 
liant forensic victories of modern times, was 
largely due to the adroit abstention of Mr. Brady 
from any cross-examination save what related 
strictly to the testimony-in-chief. Like the di- 
vine gift of eloquence, it is often perverted to 
purposes of injustice — " to put a face of truth 
upon a body of falsehood " — rather than "to exe- 
cute justice and to maintain truth." 

Referring to the judge-advocate, who com- 
bines the functions of a judge with those af an 
advocate, Charles Sumner says : — "As a judge, 
conversant with the law and the practice of 
courts, he is to advise the members on such 



212 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

questions of law as the case presents, and to be 
of counsel for the prisoner, according to judicial 
custom, when the prisoner was not allowed 
counsel in his defence. At the same time, he 
is to be the prosecuting officer for the govern- 
ment, and withal, the recorder of the court. 
The military (or naval) officers become a jury, 
with power to decide the law and the fact, and 
to assign due punishment on conviction. The 
judge-advocate is in truth the judge ; and, as in 
these trials, anciently, no counsel was allowed 
the prisoner, the judge-advocate might without 
any great difficulty see to the proper manage- 
ment both of the prosecution and defence. ■•*'•" 

In some respects, the practice of courts- 
martial might be improved. In an age of expert 
stenographers, like ours, the time of the whole 
court ought not to be wasted, as it now is, while 
the testimony is written out in full in long-hand. 
The report of a sworn stenographer, verified, of 
course, daily, by the court, would be full as trust- 
worthy as the long-hand minutes of a judge- 
advocate. 

The Bar, too, should have a recognized po- 
sition. In dealing with counsel, courts-martial 

*6 Law Keporter, p. 5. See also Mr. Sumner's learn- 
ed article on the Mutiny of the Somers, North American 
Review, vol. 57, pp. 195-241. 



LIFE AFL OA T AND A SHORE. 2 1 3 

now stand about where the courts of Athens 
stood two thousand years ago. 

The practice of military courts and that of 
naval courts are nearly aUke already, (naturally 
and necessarily so,) and they might be made 
entirely uniform. The statutes which govern 
their proceedings require but the slightest chan- 
ges to make the practice of courts in the two 
services entirely c.like ; and while there is much 
to be said for uniformity, the points of difference 
are such that there is absolutely nothing to be 
said against it. 

Why, for example, should the law require 
that the judge-advocate of a naval general conrt- 
martial should be sworn before he administers 
the oath to tbe members, and that the judge- 
advocate of a military general court-martial, and 
the judge-advocate, (or recorder,) of every other 
judicial tribunal in either service, should admin- 
ister the oath of office to the members of the 
court before he has bee^i sworn himself?'''' Why 
not make the practice uniform in all courts of 
both services 1 

Again : why should the law prescribe that 
the president or senior member shall administer 
the oath to witnesses before naval general, and 

^Revised Statutes of the United States, Title XIV., 
Chap. 5, Articles 84, 85, 117 ;— Chap. 10, Articles 28, 40, 58. 



214 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

summary, courts-martial, and yet permit wit- 
nesses before all other tribunals in either service 
to be sworn by the judge-advocate ? Why not 
permit them to be sworn by either the president 
or the judge-advocate, in all cases ? These ques- 
tions are important ; for if an oath is adminis- 
tered by one who is not, at the time, qualified to 
administer it, it is extrajudicial, and the violation 
of it is not legal perjury. 

By a singular inadvertence, the oaths pre- 
scribed for judges-advocates and members of 
naval general courts-martial and naval courts of 
inquiry, and for the recorders and members of 
summary courts-martial, do not contain the form- 
ula, ** So help you God," or any other words 
equivalent thereto ; though this is of the essence 
of all oaths. 

In dealing with cases of theft, under the 
seventh and eighth articles of war,'"' our naval 
general courts-martial often found it impossible 
to impose a penalty adequate to the offence. By 
the construction which the Navy Department 
has put upon these articles ever since their en- 
actment, it is only in cases ** where it is author- 
ised to adjudge the punishment of death," that 

*In Dynes v. Hoover, 20 Howard, 81, the United States 
Supreme Court put a different construction on these arti- 
cles, less favorable to the accused. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 2 1 5 

a court-martial may adjudge the punishment of 
imprisonment for life, or for a stated term, at 
hard labor. 

It must be considered here that the punish- 
ments imposed by courts-martial are additional 
to those imposed by the civil tribunals.''" It was 
not foreseen that a time would come when crimes 
would be committed within any state in the 
American Union, when there would be no civil 
court therein in which the offender could be 
prosecuted. To remedy this mischief, several 
courts-martial sought to impose confinement at 
hard labor in a penitentiary as a punishment 
for theft ; but the Department set aside all such 
sentences as unauthorized and void. 

The Department was manifestly right. If 
it were otherwise, a man might be sent twice to 
a penitentiary for the same offence — once by a 
civil court, and again by a court-martial. The 
authority of Dynes v. Hoover is without weight 

*It seems that Judge Woodbury, Chancellor Kent, 
Judge Betts, and Charles Sumner, eminent as they were, 
all erred in supposing crimes cognizable by a naval gen- 
eral court-martial as violations of the law of the sea, were 
not cognizable also by the civil courts as violations of the 
law of the land. See the decision of the United States Su- 
preme Court in Moore v. State of Illinois 14 Howard, 13 ; 
Caleb Cushing's opinion in Steiner's Case, 6 Opinions of 
Attorneys-General, 413, and cases there cited; Charles » 
Sumner on the Case of the Somers, 6 Law Reporter, 4. 



2i6 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

as to this. But as no such sentence as was in- 
flicted on Dynes will probably ever be approved 
again, it may stand for ages without being over- 
ruled. And as few writers in this country know 
or care much about military or naval law, this 
case may pass for ages unchallenged. 

While the late Caleb Gushing was one of 
the Commissioners to revise the statutes, I pre- 
pared, at his suggestion, a schedule of amend- 
ments whereby all these minor differences would 
have been removed, and the practice of all courts 
in the Army and Navy made uniform. He as- 
sured me that they were all desirable, wondered 
they had not been suggested sooner, filed my 
schedule carefully away, and — probably never 
looked at it again. 

Mr. Sumner's suggestion, — that ''there be 
an individual learned in the law, controlling, as 
a judge, the legal course of the trial," — would 
reduce the court to substantially the position of 
modern juries, who are judges of facts but not 
judges of laws. The biases of the Army and 
Navy lead them to prefer that their courts should 
retain the position of the ancient juries who, in 
criminal cases, were — as the ballad ran — 
" Judffes alike of the facts and the laws." 



CHAPTER XI. 

From the Palmetto State to the Old Bay State — ■ 
Researches in the History of Divorces and Divorce 
Ijegislation in America — An Unwritten Chapter in 
Our Colonial Life. 

Few commonwealths have ever presented a 
more pitiable spectacle than the Palmetto State 
at the close of 1865, when I disposed of my plan- 
tation and returned North. A large portion of 
her white male population had perished in the 
war ; another portion had become demoralized. 
Hundreds of families, previously wealthy, or well 
to-do, had been impoverished. Disaster, debt 
and ruin were everywhere. The population, how- 
ever, inheriting the blood of English Cavaliers, 
Scottish Covenanters, and French Huguenots, 
had immense recuperative power; and she might 
have been spared that other later and sadder 
chapter of calamities, had the remnant of her 
old white population done their duty. The ig- 
norance of the horde of blacks, who were sud- 



2i8 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

denly invested with political power, might have 
been largely prevented from working further 
ruin, had the whites, who had owned them, ac- 
cepted the situation, and exercised over the 
freedmen the influence which men of culture and 
property can always exert over the ignorant, the 
poor, and the depressed. But in this crisis, when 
their moral, their intellectual, and their social in- 
fluences were more needed than ever before, the 
old white population chose, blindly and madly, 
to abandon their state to its fate, and to sit down 
sullenly, like Achilles sulking in his tent. The 
result w , that the rapacity of the Northern im- 
migrants combined with the ignorance of the 
blacks, and reduced South Carolina to the con- 
dition which Mr. Pike has so well portrayed in 
his ** Prostrate State." 

Unquestionably, the Civil War brought great 
and wide-spread demoraUzation, as most wars 
do. All our historians, from Ramsay to Greeley, 
concur that the moral condition of the people 
sadly degenerated during the War of the Revo- 
lutian, and during the War of 1812. Returning to 
Massachusetts, I have been witness to schemes 
of corruption only less heinous than those which 
blacken the history of South Carolina ; of which 
those incident to the Hoosac Tunnel and the 
Hartford and Erie Railroad may be mentioned as 
striking examples. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 219 

It happened that, after returning to Massa- 
chusetts, and entering upon the practice of my 
profession in Boston, I was retained in numer- 
ous cases of domestic litigation. This led me to 
inquire when, where, and how, the courts of the 
United States, (or the Colonies,) first began to 
exercise jurisdiction in cases of divorce. 

The establishment of the first judicial tri- 
bunal in America, exercising jurisdiction in 
matters of divorce, would seem to deserve a 
a place in history. But I soon found that this 
event, which took place in 1639, had never been 
recorded with anything like accuracy by any 
writer whatever. 

Supremely important and far-reaching in 
their influence, as were the early divorce laws of 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, 
I found that they had generally been entirely 
overlooked by the historians of those times. 

Only one of those historians who have 
taken New England for their field, — Mr. Palfrey, 
— and only one of the historians of the United 
States, — Mr. Bancroft, — have referred to the 
m^atter at all. In his account of the early courts 
of judicature in Massachusetts, Palfrey says, the 
inferior courts "had jurisdiction in cases of di- 
vorce ;" which is not true. In the tenth chap- 
ter of his history, treating on the condition of 



220 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

the United Colonies of New England, Mn 
Bancroft says: "Of divorce I have found no 
example." But the original records of the 
colonial court of assistants contain several 
such examples in Massachusetts. There were 
others in Rhode Island, and also in Connecticut. 

Of the historians of Massachusetts, Hutch- 
inson alone mentions the subject of divorce ; 
but from his narrative, which is generally so full 
and so particular, it is impossible to say, within 
fifty years, when this jurisdiction was first ex- 
ercised. 

Daniel Webster wisely said : — 

"There are two sources of information on 
these subjects, which have never yet been fully 
explored, and which, nevertheless, are overflow- 
ing fountains of knowledge. I mean the Stat- 
utes, and the proceedings of the Courts of Law. 
At an early period of life, I recurred, with some 
degree of attention, to both these sources of in- 
formation ; not so much for professional purposes 
as for the elucidation of the progress of Society. 
I acquainted myself with the object, and pur- 
poses, and substance of every published Statute 
in British Legislation. These showed me what 
the Legislature of the country was concerned 
in, from time to time, and from year to year. 
And I learned from the Reports of controver- 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 221 

sies, in the Courts of Law, what were the per- 
suits and occupations of individuals, and what 
the objects which most earnestly engaged atten- 
tion. I hardly know anything which more 
repays research than studies of this kind. "'•'•■ 

The first act expressly or tacitly authorizing 
the dissolution of marriage by judicial decree, 
in any dependency of the English Crown, 
was passed by the general court of Massachu- 
setts in 1639, and reenacted in 1658, in an im- 
proved form, as follows : — 

''That there be two courts of assistants 
yearly kept at Boston, by the governor, or depu- 
ty governor, and the rest of the magistrates, on 
the first Tuesday of the first month, [March,] 
and on the first Tuesday of the seventh month, 
[September,] to hear and determine all and only 
actions of appeal from inferior courts, all causes 
of divorce, all capital and criminal causes, ex- 
tending to life, member, or banishment. "f 

The first decree of divorce under this act 
was that of one James Luxford of Boston. It 

*Address before the New York Historical Society. 

fCompare Massachusetts Colony Eecorcls, vol 1, p. 
276, with Charters and General Laws of the Colony and 
Province, edition of 1814, p. 90, and the advertisement. 
In the editions of the Colony laws printed in 1G58 and 1660, 
(now extremely rare,) the act above cited is found on 
p;ige 23. The same act is reprinted on page 36 of the 
edition of 1672, in which President Woolsey erroneously 
says "there is no mention made of divorce." 



222 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

was entered in 1639, arid is recorded in the first 
volume of Massachusetts Colony Records, 283. 

Neither Bancroft, nor Palfrey, nor Barry, 
nor even Washburn, who has preserved so many 
interesting facts in his Judicial History of Mas- 
sachusetts, seems ever to have seen the volume 
of records of the court of assistants,'*'" from 
March 3, 1678, to March 23, 1691-1692^ in the 
office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial 
Court for the Commonwealth, in Boston. 

I presume that Governor Hutchinson^ who 
wrote in 1767, had seen the records preserved 
in this volume, as well as those which are lost, 
and doubtless had them in mind when he 
said, — "I never heard of a separation, under the 
first charter, a mensa et thoro. Where it is 
practiced, the innocent party often suffers more 
than the guilty. In general, what would have 
been cause for such a separation in the spiritual 
courts, was sufficient, with them, for a divorce 
a vinculo y'\ 

*Dr. Ellis has objected to Hawthorne's great romance 
of The Scarlet Letter^ thac nothing* in the history of the 
Colony justified him in portraying Hester Prynne wear- 
ing the letter A upon her breast as a badge of infamy. 
But in this volume we find Ruth Reed condemned to 
stand in the market-place in Boston, and to wear an ad- 
vertisement tenfold worse than that of Hawthorne's 
heroine. This was in March, 1673. From 1640 to 1673, 
the records of this court are lost. 

fHutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. 393. 



LIFE AFLOA F AND ASFIORE. 223 

How Mr. Bancroft could overlook the dis- 
tinction between separations from bed and 
board and divorces from the bond of matrimony 
— or, how he could infer from this passage that 
absolute divorces were unknown here — I can- 
not understand : yet it was probably this passage 
in Hutchinson which suggested the following in 
Bancroft : — "Of divorce I have found no exam- 
ple ; yet a clause in one of the statutes recog- 
nizes the possibility of such an event. Divorce 
from bed and board, the separate maintenance 
without the dissolution of the marriage contract, 
— an anomaly in Protestant legislation, that 
punishes the innocent more than the guilty, — 
was abhorrent from their principles. "'•'" 

In the docket of the Massachusetts court 
of assistants, to which I have referred, eighteen 
cases are recorded without regard to formality.f 

One of the first acts passed by the general 
court of Massachusetts, under the Province 

=*^For a fuller exposure of errors in Bancroft's His- 
tory of the United States, Centenary Edition, vol. 1, p. 
374 ; Palfrey's History of New England, vol. 2, p. 17 ; 
Arnold's History of Rhode Island, vol. 2, p. 175 ; Wool- 
sey's Essay on Divorce and Divorce Leiiislation, p. 183 ; 
and in The New-Engiander, for July, 1868, p. 438 ; — see 
the author's pamphlet entitled "Our Divorce Courts &c." 

fThe pamphlet, entitled "Our Divorce Courts " &c., 
contains an account of all these cases, and also of the 
early New York_, Rhode Island and Connecticut cases. 



224 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Charter of 1692, provided that *'all controversies 
concerning marriage and divorce shall be heard 
and determined by the Governor and Council." 
Under this law divorces continued to be granted 
from year to year until the Revolution. ••'■ Will- 
iam and Mary were on the throne when this act 
was allowed. Archbishop Tenison was then 
Primate, and Lord Chancellor Somers, (one 
of Lord Macaulay's heroes,) was President of 
the Council. 

The Colony of New Haven was almost as 
unfortunate as Massachusetts Bay in respect to 
her records. From April, 1644, to May, 1653, 
these records are lost. I have had no access to 
the dockets of the early courts of Connecticut, 
but in Trumbull's Public Records of that Col- 
ony I find eleven divorces.^ 

While the Colony of New York was held 
by the Dutch, the liberal divorce laws of Hol- 
land, of course, prevailed ; and an examination 
of the dockets of her courts during that period 
may yield as many cases of this class as these 
early Massachusetts records. 

*See the cases in Cowley's Famous Divorces of All 
Ages, pp. 271-275. This law, however, did not prevent 
the general court itself from granting divorces, as the 
records of the Province in several cases attest. 

^Connecticut Colony Records, Trumbull, vol. 1, pp. 
275, 301, 363, 379 ; vol. 2, pp. 129, 292, 293, 322, 326, 327, 
328 ; vol. 3, p. 23 ; vol. 4, p. 59. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 225 

The " Historical Manuscripts" in the office 
of the Secretary of State at Albany, endorsed 
*'i630- 1664: Dutch : Part i," contain, at least, 
three cases ;■■•'■■ and the records of the Patroons' 
courts may contain othet's. 

For the period between the English con- 
quest of that colony and the Revolution of 1776 
the Historical Manuscripts in the same office, 
endorsed "English Documents: 1664-1776," 
contain evidence of curious interest.f 

Among the circumstances which combined 
to render the practice of divorce acceptable, 
were — the general rejection of the sacramental 
view of marriage ; the solemnization of marria- 
ges by civil magistrates rather than by clergy- 
men ; the frequent coming to the Colonies of 
men who had " left their wives at home ;" the 
great practical difficulty of living here and car- 
rying on agricultural pursuits without wives, and 
the necessity of affording to enterprizing men 
and worthy women an opportunity to reconstruct 
their domestic relations, and take a new depart- 
ure on the voyage of life. 

*Vol. 6, p. 49 ; vol. 8, pp. 415, 417, 419. 

tSee vol. 23, pp. 269, 390 ; vol. 25, pp. 84, 85. Presi- 
dent Woolsey's Essay, (p. 190,) requires correction, as to 
both the Dutch and the English periods. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Law of Privilege in Civil Courts and Courts- 
Martial — Commander Seely's Trial — Brief for the 
Aitcused. 

There have been few leaves in my life as 
a Massachusetts lawyer, which would natur- 
ally find a place in the same volume with my na- 
val reminiscences. As counsel for the Grand 
Lodge of St. Crispin, I had the satisfaction to 
contend with success for their right to a place 
among the corporate bodies of the State,'-' as 
well as their right to collect debts by legal pro- 
cess, in spite of the cry that it was against pub- 
lic policy. With still greater satisfaction do I 
recall the part I have taken in restricting, by 
penal law, the hours of labor of women and chil- 
dren in the factories to ten hours a day. Massa- 
chusetts, which is generally so forward in meas- 

*See Act to incorporate the Massachusetts Grand 
Lodge of the Knights of St. Crispin, chapter 281 of the 
Acts of 1870. Snow et al. v. Wheeler et al., 113 Mass. 179. 



# 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 227 

ores of reform, was many years behind England 
in the passage of this beneficent law ; — but she 
is now moving to secure similar enactments in 
other States. '•^' Other just and beneficent meas- 
ures, I have labored for, with no barren result ; 
but I will make no further note^of them here. 

I shall close this volume with a brief record 
of two cases, in which I have been personally 
concerned ; — one involving the law of Privilege, 
applicable alike to civil courts and to courts- 
martial ; — the other a trial by a Naval General 
Court-Martial. 

In preparing for the argument of the ques- 
tion of privilege, I was surprised to find that, in- 
stead of having been elucidated by the decisions 
of the courts in which it has so often arisen, it 
has been reduced to an almost unintelligible jar- 
gon by the conflicting crotchets of different 
judges. As the result of my inquiries, I submit 
the following four propositions as a correct defi- 
nition of the law of privilege 

I. Where an advocate, a party, or a witness, 
is charged with false and defamatory utterances 

*See Act to regulate the Hours of Labor in Manufac- 
turing Establishments, chapter 221 of the Acts of 1874, 
amended by chap. 207 of the Acts of 1879. See, also, chap. 
37 of the Resolves of 1879. 

For a striking illustration of the abuses which were 
formerly tolerated, see Cowley's Reminiscences of James 
C. Ayer, pp. 14-16. 



228 LEA VES FROM A LA WYER'S 

in the course of judicial proceedings ; if the 
words used were pertinent to the matter in is- 
sue, and were uttered without the knowledge, or 
the belief, that they were false, they are privil- 
eged. Revis V. Smith, 18 Common Bench, 126. 
Henderson v. Broomhead, 4 Hurlston & Nor- 
man, 569. 

2. Where defamatory utt^^rances are made 
in good faith, in the belief that they are per- 
tinent, and in the belief that they are true, they 
are privileged ; although in fact they are not 
pertinent to the matter in issue, and although 
in fact they are not true. And if not so made, 
they are actionable. Watson v. Mower 1 1 Ver- 
mont 542, cited and approved in Hoar v. Wood, 
3 Metc^if, 193. Kidder v. Parkhurst, 3 Allen, 
393. Newfield v. Cofferman, 15 Abbott, Pr. N. 
S. 360. White V. Carol, 42 N. Y., 161. White 
V. Nicholls, 3 Howard U. S. 267. Seaman v. 
Netherclift, L. R. i C. P. D. 540. Hodgson v. 
Scarlett, i Barnewell & Alderson 241. 

If this were otherwise, a man might be 
mulcted in damages, merely for an error of 
opinion on a doubtful question of law. Greater 
privilege than this could not safely be claimed 
by a judge, upon trial before the Senate upon 
articles of impeachment containing the matters 
here set forth. 



LIFE AFL OA T AND A SHORE. 2 29 

Upon this ground, the decisions of several 
cases may be sustained, in which the courts 
seemed to hold that the privilege of parties, 
counsel and witnesses was absolute. Astley v. 
Young, 2 Burrows, 809 ; and Kennedy v. Hil- 
liard, 10 Irish Common Law, 195, where this 
"absolutist" doctrine is strikingly qualified by 
Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. 

3. Where an advocate, a party, or a wit- 
ness, utters defamatory words, which he knows 
to be false, and which he utters maliciously, with 
intent to injure another, such words are not 
privileged, although they are uttered upon a 
privileged occasion, and although they may re- 
late to the matter in controversy. Every such 
utterance is made in abuse of his privilege ; 
and a wilful lie can never be justified as perti- 
nent to any issue whatever. White v, Nicholls, 
3 Howard U. S. 267. Marsh v. Ellsworth, i 
Sweeney, 52. Smith v. Howard, 28 Iowa, 51. 
Calkins v. Sumner, 13 Wisconsin, 193.'*' 

4. Where an advocate, a party, or a wit- 
ness, confederates with others in a scheme of 
fraud or defamation, and does any thing|in aid 
of such a scheme, he is liable in an action of 
conspiracy for the damages caused thereby. See 
Fitzjohn v. Mackinder, 9 C. B. (N. S.) 506-534. 

*Tliese cases are referred to for illustration, not as 
entirely supporting the text. 



230 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

Among the English cases relating to the 
law of Privilege, in proceedings before military 
and naval courts, as well as before civil tribu- 
nals, the most valuable is that brought by Col- 
onel Dawkins against General Lord Rokeby, 7 
House of Lords Cases, 755. 

In 1869, the Pawnee, one of the most valu- 
able vessels of Admiral Dahlgren's squadron, 
returned from a cruise in the South Atlantic. 
Shortly before her arrival at Portsmouth, her pay- 
master was robbed, and a liberal reward offered 
for the detection of the thieves. The master-at- 
arms, stimulated by this offer, proceeded to play, 
at once, the part of a detective, and of a tyrant, 
but without the knowledge — so far as it appear- 
ed — of any of his superior officers. He actually 
''triced up" three of the crew by the wrists, in 
direct violation of law, with the view to induce 
them to confess the theft. 

It was, of course, expected that Captain 
Clitz, who then commanded the Pawnee, would 
be brought to trial, not for causing these punish- 
ments to be inflicted, (for he probably had no 
personal knowledge that they had been inflicted,) 
but for not using such dilligence as would have 
prevented them. But this was not done ; neither 
were any of his officers, with one exception, held 
amenable to discipline in not preventing these 
illegal inflictions. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 23 1 

The executive officer, however, (Mr. Seely,) 
for no other reason than that he was the execu- 
tive officer, was brought to trial, and convicted 
of neglect of duty in not preventing these ille- 
gal punishments. 

The men aggrieved having applied to me, I 
advised that they ask for an investigation. But 
that investigation failed to fasten any knowledge 
of, or participation in, these irregularities, upon 
any officer, or petty officer, except the master-at- 
arms. Being convinced that Commander Seely 
was wholly innocent, and the men who had ap- 
plied to me for counsel, being also convinced of 
his innocence, I assisted him professionally in 
his defence. 

For the neglect already mentioned, and not 
upon any other finding, the Naval General Court- 
Martial suspended the accused from duty for 
one year. 

If the accused was really responsible in the 
premises, this sentence was not unreasonable. 
But other cases of illegal punishment in other 
vessels were then fresh in the public mind, and it 
was urged that an example should be made. The 
Court was reconvened, and rebuked for not hav- 
ing imposed a severer sentence. 

Under these circumstances, and under the 
influence of Mr. Bolles, who was sent to as- 



232 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

sist the Court in revising its sentence, the ac- 
cused was sentenced to suspension from rajik 
and duty for four years. A part of this sentence 
was afterwards remitted by Secretary Robeson ; 
but in the meantime, several officers junior to 
Commander Seely passed over him in the Navy 
Register. 

As this case has led to the passage of an 
act of Congress, and also to the promulgation of 
a departmental order, designed to prevent some 
of the points made in my brief in this case from 
arising again, I deem it of sufficient interest to 
those who may peruse this book, to append this 
brief hereto. I will only add that, in my judg- 
ment, Commander Seely has suffered great in- 
justice in this case ; — that he is a very kind- 
hearted and highly meritorious officer, who would 
scorn to inflict any cruelty whatever upon men 
under his command ; and that either the De- 
partment or Congress ought to grant his request. 

Here is an apt illustration of the injustice 
incident to sentences to suspension from rank 
for a particular time. Had Mr. Seely stood fif- 
teen numbers lower on the Register, his rank 
would not have been affected by this sentence. 
If an officer's rank is to be affected at all, the 
sentence should specify how many numbers he 
is to lose. Nothing should be left to chance. 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 233 

Points and ATathorities in snpport of the 3?e- 
quest of Commander Henry B. Seely to "be 
restored to h.is original position on tlie N'avy 
JRegister. 
.1. It is submitted that tlie proceedings of the Naval 
General Court-Martial, upon whose sentence Commander 
Seely was suspended from his rank, were null and void, 
because that court consisted of seven members only, 
when thirteen might have been assembled without injury 
to the service. Mr. Solicitor Bolles admits that where a 
sentence is void, it must be set aside, although it may 
have been approved by the President; and such is un- 
questionably the law. Even where the sentence is not 
void, if it is clearly shown to be contrary to the justice 
of the case, it should be set aside by Congress, though 
previously approved by the President. See the cases of 
Surgeon-General Hammond and Major-General Fitz-John 
Porter. 

2. Attorney-General Wirt, giving an opinion touch- 
ing a similar court, said, it "was not a legal court if thir- 
teen could have been convened without manifest injury to 
the service." 1 Opinions of Attorney-General, 299. On 
page 300 of the same volume, he adds, "It is difficult 
to conceive an emergency in time of peace so pressing as 
to disable the General Officer ordering the Court from 
convening thirteen commissioned officers on a trial of 
life and death, without manifest injury to the service. 
And if a smaller number act without such emergency, 
I repeat, that they are not a lawful court." 

3. It is a fact of public history, well known to the 
Department and to the Court, that the United States were 
at peace with all the world in 1869, and had more com- 
missioned officers in the Navy than the exigencies of the 
service then required. At no time in our national his- 
tory, could thirteen commissioned officers have been con- 



234 LEAVES FROM A LAWYER'S 

yened upon a General Court-Martial, with less inconve- 
nience to themselves or less detriment to the service. 
Several such officers, not members of the court, nor 
witnesses on either side, w^ere actwally present as 
spectators during the proceedings in opencourt. 

4. With the knovs^ledge that there was then no emer- 
gency to prevent the assembling of thirteen officers, the 
Secretary of the Navy could not, — and therefore he did 
not, — certify to the court, in his order convening it, or in 
any subsequent communication thereto, that a greater 
number could not be convened without injury to the 
service. 

5. "When a General Court-Martial is originally con- 
stituted with less than thirteen members, an omission to 
add in the order convening it, a statement to the effect 
that no officers other than those named can be assembled 
without manifest injury to the service, is tatal to the 
validity of the proceedings." Opinions of the Judge 
Advocate General, XL. 208. AVinthrop's Digest, 22, 267. 

G. In conformity with this view, section 142 of the 
"Orders, Regulations and Instructions for the Adminis- 
tration of Law and Justice in the U. S. Navy," issued in 
1870, ( the year succeeding this trial, ) provides that such 
a statement shall always be added to the order convening 
a General Court-Martial, and says, "it is to be regarded 
as an essential part of such order as showiilg that the re- 
quirements of the statute relating to both number and 
rank have been complied with as far as the interests of 
the service would allow." 

7. Judge-Advocate General Holt holds, with Attor- 
ney General Wirt, that this is "an essential part of the 
order." In the case of William Campbell, Acting Second 
Assistant Engineer, U. S. S. "Dai Ching," S. A. B. 
Squadron, in 1864, the sentence of a Naval General Court- 
Martial was declared by Secretary Welles to be "null 
and without any effect," because 'Hhe court was composed 



LIFE AFLOAT AND A SHORE, 2 3 5 

of five acting members and one supernumerary member." 
Although the Admiral who convened the court had cer- 
tified that a greater number of oflicers could not be 
convened without injury to the service, Secretary Welles 
held that the presence of a supernumerary member 
showed that at least one more could have been convened, 
and said, "a supernumerary member can be ordered only 
when the court is composed of thirteen acting members.', 

8. The opinions cited by Solicitor Bolles merely re- 
peat what the Supreme Court decided in Martin v. Mott, 
12 Wheaton, IG. The order convening the Court in that, 
case contained the statement that a greater number of 
officers could not be convened without injury to the 
service, and also stated the reason why no greater num- 
ber could be so convened. It was rightly held that the 
decision of the convening officer touching the sufficiency 
of that reason, was final. Of this there can be no doubt. 
But in Commander Seely's case the Secretary did not so 
certify, and could not so certify, in the face of public 
facts. 

9. With respect to all courts of special jurisdiction, 
the rule is, that every fact necessary to give jurisdiction 
must appear upon the face of the record — and the omis- 
sion of the statement above mentioned in the order con- 
vening the court, renders all its proceedings void as 
coram non judice ; the fact being that a full number of 
officers, or a number greater than seven, might have been 
convened without injury to the service. As to this rule 
see Kemp vs. Kennedy, 5 Cranch, 172. State vs. Richmond, 
26 N. H-, 232; Damp vs. Dane, 29 Wisconsin, 419; State 
vs. Berry, 12 Iowa, 58 and cases there cited ; Kansas City, 
Missouri and Council Bluffs R. R. Co. vs. Campbell Nel- 
son & Co., 26 Mo. 584 and 288. The court in this last case 
says,— "This is a^ jurisdictional fact, and without it is 
apparent on the record," the court whose aid is sought, 



236 LEA VES FROM A LA WYEKS 

whether possessing special or general jurisdiction, is 
powerless to tal^e any valid step in the premises." 

See decisions of the highest courts of different States 
collected in United States Digest, First Series, vol. 4, 
title. Courts, sec. 352, p. 69. 

10. "Objections to the jurisdiction may be taken at 
any time before or even after judgment. Elder vs. 
D wight Manuf'g Co., 4 Gray, (Mass.) 20-1:; Carey vs. 
Daniels, 5 Metcalf, (Mass.) 23G; Jordan m. Dennis, 7 
Metcalf, (Mass.) 590. 

11. Many palpable irregularities marked the pro- 
ceedings of this court, and appear on many pages of the 
record. On page 165, (for example, ) where the "new 
sentence" is recorded, it does net appear whether the 
"new sentence" was imposed in lieu of the former sen- 
tence or in addition tliereto. If it was imposed as an 
additional sentence, it was void, since the court coukl 
impose but one sentence. There being two sentences of 
record, and it not appearing affirmatively that the 
latter was imposed as a substitute ior the former, both 
are void. 

12. It is not the Executive officer, but the Command- 
ing officer of a ship, who is responsible for the discip- 
line of the ship. The Executive officer is merely his aide. 
Section 1469 of the Kevised Statutes, ( Title xv, Chapter 
4,) is a declaratory enactment, which merely formalates 
the law as it existed before. There being no evidence 
that the accused had any knowledge of, or participation 
in, the illegal punishment, he should have been acquitted. 

13. It appears from the order of the Secretary re- 
convening the Court, and from the report of Solicitor 
Bolles on this case, that both those offJicers failed t6 dis- 
tinguish between cruel punishment ^HnflictecV by order 
of the accused, (of which there is no proof whatever in 
the record,) and cruel punishment not prevented by him, 



LIFE AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 237 

aud not even known to him. The case was merely this : 
cruel punishment; having b*^en inflicted, the Executive 
Officer — not the Captain — was held <,''ailt3^ in not disco v- 
erinw- and preventino^ it. 

14. The failure of the Secretary thus to distinguish 
between acts ordered, and acts done which by greater 
vigilance the accused might have prevented, was the 
cause of the reconvening of the Court. 

15. It was upon the reconvening of the Court that 
the absence of the full number of Line Officers was most 
prejudicial to the accused. The question, what punish- 
ment should be imposed upon the Executive Officer of a 
ship, (the Commanding Officer not being brought to trial 
at all, though chargeable with the same omission as the 
accused,) for not using more vigilance to anticipate, dis- 
cov er aud prevent a violation of law, was pre-eminently 
a question for Sea Officers, for those who had seen the 
parties and had heard all their evidence, and .wdio were 
experienced in such duties. The first sentence shows 
what seven Line Officers, all of wdiom had repeatedly 
held commands, regarded as a proper punishment when 
the facts were fresh in their minds. 

IG. But when the Court reassembled, when the Secre- 
tary's letter ignoring the important distinction above re- 
ferred to, was read to them, and when a civilian officer, who 
likewise ignored that necessary distinction, was introduc- 
ed to '' assist the Court in its deliberations," it was no 
difficult matter (in perhaps a divided Court) to swaj^ four 
officers out of seven by suggestions and influences 
which would have been inefi'ectual to carry seven out of 
thirteen. 

17. This requirement of the law touching the num- 
ber of members is a most judicious one. Officers re- 
quire help from deliberation with their associates, and 
especially when the accused is sought to be punished as if 



238 LEAVES FROM A LAWYERS 

he had done actively and wilfall}^ what the evidence 
shows he only did not prevent, having no reason to appre- 
hend its occurrence. 

18. For what purpose was Mr. Bolles superimposed 
upon the Court but to influence its action and procure a 
sentence adequate to ofiences which he regarded (as he 
says in his report) as "heinous, monstrous, horrible," but 
which the record shows to have been merely a neglect to 
exercise extraordinary vigilance? He was not, as he 
says, "the Judge Advocate at the trial." There was a 
Judge Advocate, and an Associate Judge Advocate, (an 
officer unknown to the Law,) at the trial, and they were 
both present when the Court reassembled. By what au- 
thority was Mr. Bolles introduced as a Special Judge 
Advocate?" There is no authority for imposing such an 
officer upon the Court. 

19. Mr. Bolles' order shows that he was sent to the 
Court to " assist in its deliberations." There can be no' 
doubt that he obeyed that order. What suggestions he 
made the record does not show. But it would be unjust 
to him to assume that he sat in Court in silence, when 
his orders Avere to -'assist." But any influence exerted 
in a closed Court was irregular. He ought n<.)t to have 
been present at all. 

20. "As he has no vote, he [the Judge Advocate] is 
not entitled to meddle with the sentence." O'Brien, 283. 
"When the Court is passing sentence, there can be no 
doubt, the Judge Advocate ought not to interpose his 
opinion. On this point all writers are agreed." 
O'Brien, 284. 

21. Mr. Bolles says, "When the Court met to consider 
its sentence, it had no open session at which the accused 
was or rightfully could be present :" — thence he infers 
that he was properly added to the Court, and sworn in 
the absence of the accused. But it is submitted that the 
fact, that the Court had "no open session at which the 



LIFE AFLOA T AND ASHORE. 239 

accused could be present," is a siifflcient reason (were 
there no otlier) why no one could be present except the 
members ot the Court, and the Judge Advocate, who had 
been sworn as such at the trial in presence of the 
accused. 

22. No new member can be added to a closed Court, 
nor can its members permit any one to be present when 
voting upon the sentence, (except themselJi^es and the 
Judge Advocate,) without violating their oath not to 
disclose the sentence or the vote or opinion of any 
member. 

23. It is submitted, finally, that the presence of Mr. 
BoUes, with such orders, in a closed Naval General Court- 
Martial, was unprecedented, irregular, improper and un- 
lawful ; that a sentence obtained under such circum- 
stances is null and void, and should be set aside, just as a 
verdict would be set aside because of the presence with 
the jury of any third person, even though he were the 
presiding Judge of the Court to which that verdict must 
be riturned. 



INDEX. 

^' America," yacht, blockade-runner, captured, 84. 

Appleton's Cyclopsedia, 29, 67, 70. 

^'Atlanta," Confederate Ram, captured, 77. 

Aranda, Count of; secret letter from liim, 198. 

Ayala, Judge-Advocate under Parma, 197. 

Bancroft's History of the United States, 219-223. 

Battle of Port Royal, 42-47. 

Battle of Port Royal Ferry, 49. 

Battle of Secessionville, 58-65. 

Battle of Pocotaligo, 6S. 

Battle of Coosawhatchie, 6S. 

Battle between Confederate Rams and Federal Gun- 
boats, off Charleston, 68-75. 

Battle between the Iron-Clads and the Forts of 
Charleston, 80-83. 

Battle of Honey Hill, 136. 

Battle of Deveaux's Neck, 138. 

Beauregard, General, 64, 74, 78, 85, 86, 91, 122, 159, 

"Beauregard,-' privateer, captured, 32. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 189; his ho7i mot, 173; his 
oration in Fort Sumter, 183-185. 

Belknap, Captain, 123 ; his memorandum, 162. 



242 INDEX. 

Benham, General, 51, 64 ,74. 

Blockade-running, 110-13, 126. 

Blockading Squadrons, 15-18. 

Bombardment of the Batteries on the Stono, 135. 

Boynton's History of the Navy, 32, 45, 70, 74, 81, 82 
110, 150, 172, 173. 

Brief for Commander Seely, 233-239. 

Charles Fort, its ter-centennary, 56. 

Charles the Fifth's Judge-Advocate, 197. 

Charleston, occupied, 169. 

Charleston Prizes, 24-33, 84, 170. 

"Columbine, " captured, 122. 

Courts-Martial and Civil Courts compared, 209-216. 

Dahlgren, Admiral ; takes command, 85 ; his descent 
on Morris Island, 89 ; his offer to Taliaferro, 102? 
bombards Wagner, 92 ; assaults Sumter, 108 ; his 
attachment to Sherman, 143 ; enters Savannah, 
146 : enters Charleston, 167 ; his prizes, 170 ; his 
character, 102, 207. 

Dahlgren's Council of War, 123. 

"Dai Ching," destroyed, 157. 

"David," torpedo boat, sinks the Housatonic, 121. 

'Deer," last of the Charleston blockade-runners, J 71. 

"Dixie," privateer, 29 ; captured, 84. 

Drayton, General, 46 ; Drayton, Admiral, 44, 80. 

Dupont, Admiral, 17, 32, 49, 50, 64, 77, S5', his victory 
at Port Royal, 42—46; his battle with the forts 
at Charleston, 80 — 83; his prizes, 84. 

Evans, General, his victory, 59. 

Farragut, Admiral, 17, 18, 77; his bon mot, 157. 



INDEX. 243 

Fleet Brigade, 138. 

Fort Johnson, attacked, 132-134. 

Fort Moultrie, attacked, 80-83. 

Fort Sumter, attacked, 80-83, 107-110, 151. 

Fort Wagner, stormed, 90-102 ; evacuated, 1©6. 

Foster, John G., General, 123, 136, 159, 161. 

"General Hunter," destroyed by a torpedo, 121. 

Georgetown, captured, 168, 

Gillmore, General, 85, 92, 102, 108, 127, 128, 129; his 

demand for the surrender of Charleston, 103. 
Greeley's " American Conflict," 25, 27, 32, 45, 50, 53, 

54, 63, 68, 74, 90, 91, 92, 99, 100, 102, 108, 110, 

413, 116, 160, 162, 218. 
Hardee, General, evacuates Savannah, 144; evacuates 

Charleston, 172. 
Harper's "History," 32, 45, 50, 52, 53, 54, 63, 64,100. 
"Harvest Moon," flag-ship, sunk by a torpedo, 179. 
Havanna, 194. 

Heroic Endurance of Charleston, 119. 
"Housatonic" sunk by a torpedo, 121. 
Hunter, General, 47, 50, 51, 62, 85. 
Ingraham, Admiral, attempts to raise the blockade at 

Charleston, 68—77. 
"Ironsides," 80, 82 ; attacked by the David, 114. 
"Iroquois" in chase of the R. E. Lee, 19. 
"Jeflerson Davis," privateer, lost, 28. 
Jones, General, puts prisoners under fire, 131. 
Kearney, General, killed at Chantilly, 66. 
*'.Lady Davis," Confederate steamer, captured, 170. 
Law of Privilege, 227-230. 



244 INDEX. 

Lee, Kobert E., General, 48, 53. 

Lincoln, President, 10, 28, 46 ; his asassination, 191. 

Lossing's History of the Eehellion, 33, 44, 49, 50, 53, 

63, 68, 74, 83, 92, 100, 102, 108, 110, 116, 160. 
Macaulay, Lord, 14, 44, 173, 202, 206. 
"Maple Leaf," destroyed by a Torpedo, 121. 
Mason and Slidell's Mission, 35. 
Morris Island Stockade, 131 
Morris Island, evacuated, 106. 
Napoleon, eludes Nelson, 40, 41, 60, 67, 98, 99, 100, 

124, 139, 149. 
Napoleon the Third, 70. 
^'Nashville/' not a privateer, but a Confederate Naval 

Steamer, 33 ; destroyed by the Montauk, 34. 
Nelson, Lord, in chase of Napoleon, 40-43. 
New York Times, 78, 193. . 

" Herald, 137, 142, 193. 
" " Tribune, 193. 
'^ " World, 193. 
Paris, Count of; his History of the Civil War, 14, 35, 

45, 50, 53, 54, 63, 6S. 100 ; on the Navy, 16. 
Palmetto State Politics, 217. 

'Tatapsco," 80, 92, 105 ; sunk by a torpedo, 157. 
Pemberton, General, 53, 64, 65, 
"Petrel," privateer, captured, 30. 
Pollard's History of the Lost Cause, 46, 64, 86, 92, 173. 
Porter, Admiral, 13, 17, 77, 179. 
Preston, Flag-Lieutenant, with Lieutenant Porter, 

captured at Sumter, 113 ; killed at Fisher, 156. 
Putnam's Eehellion Eecord, 68, 75, 78, 181, 32, 50, 

51, 64, 68, 101, 141. 



INDEX. 245 

Jlibault's Settlement at Port Roj^al, 55-58. 
Eipley, General E. S., 78, 79, 83, 91. 
Eomance and Eeality of War, 87, 100. 
"Savannah," privateer, captured, 25. 
Scliimmelfennig, General; his battle, 170; his letter, 

180; his death, 182. 
Sea Islands, captured and occupied, 48. 
Sherman, Thomas W., General ; his army, 47-49. 
Sherman, William Tecumseh, General, joins Dahl- 

gren, 142-145 ; at Savannah, 146-150 ; his march 

through the Carolinas, 158-160. 
Small, Robert, runs away with the Planter, 53-55. 
Steam Navies, 11, 43. 
Stephens, Commodore, 106. 
Stevens, General, 49, 59, 61-67 ; his death, 66. 
Strong, General, George C. 85 ; killed at Wagner, 94. 
Sumter, Federal Flag restored over, 182. 
Tatnall, Commodore, 145. 
Torpedo defences of Charleston, 128. 
Trip to the Tropics, 192-202. 
Tucker, Commodore, 72, 80, 151, 172. 
Unwritten Chapter in Colonial Life, 219. 
"Water Witch," captured, 122. 
"Weehawdien," sunk off Charleston, 116. 
Welles, Secretary, 14, 45, 46, 82, 110, 141, 143. 
Wellington, Duke, 44, 122. 
Wilson, Senator, at the grave of Hayne, 190. 



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Paper covers. Twenty-five cents. 1879. 

Famous Divorces of All Ages. Cloth 
binding, $1.25 ; paper binding, $1.00. 1878. 

It is said in the preface to Peter Burke's "Cele- 
brated Trials connected with the Aristocracy," that a 
knowledge of them "forms, in some measure, a 
necessary adjunct to the history of the country." 
And the same is true of Judge Cowley's singular 
series of narratives, of which it may be truly said, 
in the words of another and far greater Burke, that 
they "exhibit man as he is in action and principle, 
and not as he is usually drawn by poets and specu- 
lative philosophers." 

Browne's Divorce and Its Consequences. 
Paper covers. Twenty-five cents. 1877. 

"N"o case has ever occured, which illustrates 
so strikingly some of the abuses and defects of our 
present Divorce Code, as that which Judge Cowley 
has so graphically recorded in this book." 

Indian and Pioneer Memories of the 
Region of Lowell. Paper covers. Fifty cents. 
1862. But few copies unsold. 

PENHALLOW PRINTING CO. 
12 Middle Street, Lowell, Mass. 



63 1 i 









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